Quote:
Originally Posted by McBane
The history is certainly interesting. But you had to admit that such a building - if proposed today - would never fly. The aesthetics can be debated but the grassy setback and fencing has no place in an urban neighborhood. Now up until very recently, this type of fortress-like design was likely intentional in University City. Things have changed for the better, fortunately.
Glad to see that the building is undergoing a renovation but if this building is considered historically significant, then is the exterior being touched? Or is the renovation only occurring on the inside?
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Quote:
Planning Strategy:
Designed by Eero Saarinen in 1958, Hill College House is an internationally recognized architectural landmark located at the corner of 33rd and Walnut Streets. Originally a women's dormitory, the building's entry features an allegorical bridge over an ivy filled "moat" and its surrounding spiked metal fence. The living spaces, including five floors of double bedroom accommodates 500 students. Student lounges and seminar rooms are built around a vast central atrium that overlooks a dining area on the lower level.
Program:
A complete building renovation is being planned to address the maintenance and system upgrades needed for a modern College House. Work will include the conversion of all bathrooms to individual restrooms and shower rooms, renovations to all bedrooms and common spaces, upgrades to MEP systems including air conditioning, and major upgrades to the central kitchen and dining areas. The building masonry envelope with be repointed and all windows will be restored. A new roof will be installed as well as new curtainwall glazing facing the central atrium.
Total Project Cost:
$80 M
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http://www.pennconnects.upenn.edu/find_a...d_g_to_m/hill_college_house_overview.php
So I underreported the price tag of this renovation by $5 million.
And I understand what you're saying about grassy setbacks and fencing in an urban neighborhood, but it's important to remember that this is still a 300-acre Ivy League campus, albeit an urban one. In fact, the Penn campus is much larger and, in many ways, greener and LESS urban than it was when Hill was built in the late 1950s, albeit interfacing much better with its urban neighborhood now than it did in its development from the 1950s through the 1980s or so. Still, it's a matter of balancing the more traditional and somewhat cloistered campus atmosphere of an Ivy League university with the need to seamlessly and successfully interface with its surrounding urban neighborhood. Certainly a tricky balance (and one also faced by Penn's urban peers such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, etc.), but one which cannot be addressed purely in terms of urbanism.
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