After many students moved away for the summer, trees moved in.
Since April, crews have planted about 225 trees in Penn Park — a $46,000,000 new green space that will be completed by the end of August — said Edward Sidor, Director of Design and Construction for Facilities and Real Estate Services.
Ultimately, a diverse selection of 530 trees, including London plane, honey locust, red maple, burr oak, dawn redwood and willow trees, will find home in the park. The large range of trees is possible thanks to landforms, green spaces raised 25 to 30 feet higher and supported by the 1,200 concrete piles installed last summer.
With the completion of Penn Park, the University’s green space will grow by 20 percent. Spanning from 31st Street to the Schuykill River and from Walnut Street to South Street, the new 24-acre complex will provide a recreational and athletic environment on campus.
Sidor estimated the park is currently between 70 and 80 percent complete. Construction began in November 2009, led by the Michael Van Valkenburgh landscape architectural, and crews continue working to meet the end of August deadline.
Crews will install synthetic turf on the multi-purpose fields and surfacing the 12 tennis courts over the summer in order to finish before the fall semester. When completed, the park will have three multi-purpose fields protected from winter weather by air structures, said Mike Diorka, associate director of Recreation and Intercollegiate Athletics.
“We are very conscious of the sustainability factors of the park,” Diorka said, adding that the park’s outdoor lights can be dimmed when the fields are not in use to save energy.
Another unique design feature of the park is the Mechanically Stabilized Earth used instead of concrete to built the field walls. The material helps prevent soil erosion and saved $1.8 million because it was constructed off-site.
The park is one element of Penn Connects, a land use and urban design plan that aims to establish new connections between the campus and Center City.
The park will be accessible for regulation, club and intramural teams and Penn students, as well as for public use at specified times.
“We see these 24 acres as an extension of the Penn campus, and just as the Penn campus is open to the public, there are parts of it reserved for students,” said Mark Kocent, principal planner of the Office of the University Architect in Facilities and Real Estate Services.
“The students asked for more open space,” Kocent said, and the park is an answer to their demands.
