Looking ahead: An overview of the upcoming University expansion

The major construction projects and what their completion will mean for the University.

Hill Field College House

To address the growing demand for on-campus housing, officials plan to build a 340-bed College House on the corner of 34th and Chestnut Streets.

The building, which will be located on the opposite side of Hill Field from Hill College House, will also include a dining facility.

Officials plan to complete the design for the project by Spring 2008.

By enclosing Hill Field on the north side, Facilities officials hope to create an inner green area similar to the Quadrangle.

"We certainly are trying to create a sort of descendant of the Quad," said University Architect David Hollenberg.

"Architecturally, we're not trying to mimic it, but we're using the main ideas: a great open space, surrounded by a perimeter of buildings, that has certain points of access."

Annenberg Public Policy Center

The new $41.5 million facility, located on the former site of the Old Hillel Building, will serve as the new home of the Public Policy Center, which serves as the research arm of the Annenberg School.

Currently under construction, the 52,800 square foot building will open by Fall 2009, and will offer space for research facilities and a public forum. The building, which will open by Fall 2009, is located on the 36th street walk next to the ARCH building.

Penn officials are also studying the possibility of a complete renovation of the ARCH building's exterior facade and interior space.

Roberts Proton Therapy Center

Located mostly underground, the $140 million Proton Therapy Center will offer doctors the opportunity to use cutting-edge proton radiation to target tumors and treat cancer in patients.

The building is approximately 75,000 square feet in size and is scheduled to open in the summer of 2009.

Currently under construction, the Therapy Center will include five treatment rooms and connect to the cancer research wing of the Perelman Center.

Neural and Behavioral Sciences Building

Located on 38th and Woodland Avenue, the planned 100,000 square foot building will provide space for the Mahoney Institute for Neurological Sciences.

The facility will also include space for research and office facilities for the Biology Department. Officials plan to complete the design of the building by Spring 2008.

Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine

Currently under construction, the 900,000 square foot Perelman Center will offer research facilities and labs for cancer research, clinical operations, and cardiology work when completed in the summer of 2008.

Anchoring the University's biomedical development in the southeast, the $232 million facility will feature an atrium-like exterior and a street level plaza on Civic Center Boulevard.

"It's all intended to foster collaboration by providing more meeting spaces for medical and research staff," University architect David Hollenberg said.

Franklin Field Pavillion

Slated for completion in 2009, the project will transform the area between the Palestra and Franklin Field into a park-like plaza.

As a part of the project, officials plan to build a new student fitness center in the space under the arches on the north side of Franklin Field.

Featuring state-of-the art exercise facilities and retail, the center will look out onto the plaza, which will extend Smith Walk into Penn Park by bridging the rail lines to the east of the stadium.

University architect David Hollenberg said the project will attract students to the area, which is currently a parking lot.

"That's not the best use for that land," he said. "The whole area is iconic, because it has many athletic landmarks that play a big part in Penn's culture."

Officials plan to extend the pavilion by eventually developing Palestra Green, which would replace the tennis courts next to David Rittenhouse Laboratory.

"We'll be developing Palestra Green later on to create an open-space network that spills out onto the east side of campus," he added. "It'll be an explosive change, because you'll have students exercising there and looking out on the green. We want to create a lot of visible activity."

Construction on the pavilion will begin June 2008 after an eight-month design period.

Weave Bridge

In order to connect the athletic fields and the Hollenback Center to the rest of campus, Penn officials plan to construct a pedestrian bridge over the rail lines that divide Penn's southeast section of campus.

Architecture professor Cecil Balmond will design the 145-foot crowssing, called the Weave Bridge. Construction of the proposed structure, which features twisting strips of stainless steel and irregular geometric patterns, will take nine months and will be coordinated with the reconstruction of the South Street Bridge.

Penn Park

One of the first phases of eastward expansion, the project will replace 14 acres of parking lots on the postal lands with "Penn Park," a network of athletic fields and open green space.

When complete in 2010, the $40 million project will connect plazas surrounding Franklin Field with South and Walnut streets.

Penn is currently in the process of selecting a firm to design the park space. After a year of design work, officials expect construction of the park areas to take 24 months.

In addition to offering students more green space, Penn Park will also help revitalize student activity around Walnut and 31st streets, University Architect David Hollenberg said.

"To combine those parks on one side of Walnut with commercial development on the other side creates a really exciting synergy, because both have incredible access to Center City," he said.

Because the parks will also be located in the Schuylkill River floodplain, officials say the parks will include permeable surfaces to deal with stormwater runoff.

Officials may decide to construct a pedestrian bridge across the Schuylkill River from Penn Park into Center City during the final stages of the eastward expansion project.

Singh Center for Nanotechnology

Funded by a $20 million gift from Penn alumnus Krishna Singh, the Singh Center for Nanotechnology will provide over 80,000 square feet of lab and classroom space for research into nanoscience, the scientific study of extremely small materials.

Officials are currently studying the feasibility of the project, which will be located on 32nd and Walnut streets on what is now a parking lot. The Center is slated for completion by 2012.

University architect David Hollenberg said the center's proximity to other Engineering buildings will help "will help foster interdisciplinary collaboration" between the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, which are both involved in the project.

Cira Centre South

Currently, the parking garage for Post Office trucks on the east side of 30th Street will soon feature a 40-story commercial building and 30-story residential tower that officials hope will reinvigorate commercial activity on Walnut Street.

Penn is developing the $400 million center, known as Cira Centre South, with Brandywine Realty Trust, who has leased the parcel of land between Walnut and Chestnut streets from the University.

The development will include 500,000 square feet of ground-level retail and office-space, along with a 2,400-space parking garage.

"If you look at the situation out there now, there's almost no retail activity and very little pedestrian traffic," University Architect David Hollenberg said. "This is an opportunity to have a wonderful commercial development on one side looking out onto green open space."

The project will help develop "a great new gateway building along Walnut and the Schuylkill," Vice President of Facilities Anne Papageorge wrote in an e-mail.

Officials expect construction to begin in spring 2008 and finish by mid-2012.

For comprehensive coverage of the University's eastern expansion, check out our "Looking Ahead" topic page.

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