Looking Ahead | At Franklin Field and beyond, Penn moves for pricey upgrades

When the University purchased 24 acres of postal lands on the eastern edge of campus and launched a $3.5-billion fundraising drive in October, Athletic Director Steve Bilsky saw the opportunity to finally revamp his department's facilities.

"This is our best and maybe our last shot at getting this," he said. "Athletics has never been considered one of the priorities, but this time it is."

The result is a $112-million, multi-phase plan to renovate Franklin Field, the Palestra and surrounding areas, as well as to develop the postal properties with athletic fields and a new tennis center.

Planning for phase one is already underway, with completion expected by 2010.

A new park, Palestra Green, will replace the parking lots and Lott Tennis Courts that separate the Palestra from Franklin Field.

"One thing the University wants to do is create green space on campus," said Bilsky, who refused to make any Penn coaches or other Athletic Department officials available for comment for this article.

"It's important to create a new entryway coming west to east."

The quadrangular park could be used for tailgating before basketball and football home games. But Bilsky is also hoping to attract athletes and students to the area even when the Quakers are not at home.

The northern concourses of Franklin Field will be replaced by a state-of-the-art weight-training center. Several varsity coaches are already meeting with strength trainers and architects to hammer out the specifications of the new pavilion.

"Modernizing it allows it to still be vital for the new century, rather than an old building that decays," Bilsky said of the oldest football stadium in the country.

But the facility won't be restricted to just athletes, and it will also feature a small retail space for a juice bar or coffee shop.

Tennis coaches Michael Dowd and Nik DeVore won't be short on courts for long. Across the railroad tracks, as part of a new Penn park, the Athletic Department plans to build a 12-court tennis center that will be "second to none," Bilsky said.

"Six [outdoor] courts on a campus of this size never made it," he added. "I think a lot of people don't even try to play because they figure they will never get on."

Penn Park will also feature two grass fields for intramural and club sports and two full-length, well-lit synthetic fields large enough for lacrosse, soccer or football. From October through March, one field would be covered with a bubble structure, essentially giving Penn the fieldhouse it has desired for decades. The covering, estimated to cost between $6 million and $8 million, is common throughout much of Canada and the northern United States.

Teams will hopefully no longer be at Mother Nature's mercy as they try to practice during the winter months. The covering, lighting and artificial surface gives ample flexibility for when and how it can be used.

"We're not like Michigan that can have a dedicated field for each sport," Bilsky said. "We have to share."

Softball, however, will get its own new dedicated field, even though current home Warren Field was renovated just two years ago.

Field hockey will also change venues, leaving Franklin Field for a smaller stadium with carpeted turf. That field will not be constructed until the end of phase one, once the South Street bridge is reconstructed.

Bilsky anticipates that architects for this phase of eastern development will be hired by the first couple of months of 2008, with construction lasting approximately 18 months.

The goal is to concentrate as many fields as possible into a short, continuous space attractive to students.

"This whole thing will be in a park-light setting, with sand volleyball courts and barbecues," Bilsky said. "It's almost going to be like walking through Central Park."

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