Skirkanich Hall
The architects for Penn Engineering's
newest building--to be raised on the site of the old Pender
Laboratory--the husband-and-wife New York team of Tod
Williams and Billie Tsien, also attended the festivities. Earlier
in the day, they made a presentation to the Penn Engineering
Board of Overseers to offer their vision for the building and
the campus. Williams and Tsien are the designers of the Neurosciences
Institute at La Jolla, California, and New York's American
Folk Art Museum for which they won the Arup 2001 World Architecture
Award for "best new building in the world." "Williams
and Tsien are known for their detailed attention to all aspects
of a building, says Dean Glandt. Their design for Skirkanich
Hall meets a number of demanding conditions: provides state-of-the-art
laboratory and office space, improves circulation through the
Engineering complex, creates a grand entrance to it from 33rd
Street, and endows it with a superb "living room" at
its center, the Quain Quadrangle."
The Trustees Council of Penn Women
(TCPW) funded Penn's newest gateway, complete with landscaping,
lighting and the diagonal walkway commemorating 125 Years of
Women at Penn. Chair of the 125th Sculpture Committee, TCPW
member and Trustee Dr. Deborah Marrow, director of The Getty
Grant Program, joins Penn President Judith Rodin (below)
at the unveiling of the sculpture which has transformed Hill
Field into Hill Square. The sculpture by Jenny Holzer (far
right) is comprised of quotation-covered benches along
the walkway with its matching granite curbing, containing more
quotations by and about women at Penn.
Donning hard hats and digging in at
the Skirkanich Hall site, (from left to right) were
Frank Blanchard, Whitaker Foundation; SEAS Dean Eduardo Glandt;
Peter Skirkanich;
President Judith Rodin; Geri Skirkanich; James Riepe, Trustee
Chair and Dan Hammer, Chair of Bioengineering. The ceremonial
groundbreaking for Skirkanich Hall, the future home of bioengineering,
took place on October 17. President Rodin, Provost Barchi,
and Trustee Chair James Riepe celebrated with Dean Eduardo
Glandt and 150 friends of the School at a luncheon in a tent
on the west lawn of the Towne Building. The celebration
honored Trustee and Penn Engineering Overseer Peter Skirkanich
(W'65) and his wife Geri whose $10 million enabling gift--the
largest gift by an individual in Penn Engineering's history
(Almanac April
2, 2002)--was supplemented by a major
award from the Whitaker Foundation (Almanac July
17, 2001). Peter Skirkanich is founder and president of
Fox Asset Management, a New Jersey investment management and
counseling
firm. The 58,000 square foot research and teaching facility
will provide the infrastructure for a major new initiative
in bioengineering.
Hill Square
Paving the Way: Hill
Square--which had
been Hill Field--now features a poplar-lined, curving brick
walkway from 34th and Walnut to 33rd and Chestnut streets.
At the path's midpoint, a wooden "bridge" crosses a low-lying
area containing wetlands plantings. Jenny Holzer, an internationally
renowned, New York-based sculptor, known for her text-based
projects, selected numerous quotations from Penn's Archives
representing sentiments by and about women, spanning 125 years.
She collaborated with the project's landscape architect, Olin
Partnership of Philadelphia, and the lighting designer, L'Observatoire
of New York. This walkway will serve as a "new entrance" near
the site of the first women's dorm at Penn, Sergeant Hall which
had been on Chestnut Street and Hill College House, which had
been built as a women's dormitory. President Rodin said that
this project which celebrates the role and impact of women,
was a vision of so many people. It is a "conceptual companion" to
the Generational Bridge over 38th Street that was dedicated
for the actual 125th commemoration (Almanac, November
13, 2001). One of the passages reads: "I also like the African
educator's remarks, If you train a man, you educate an individual,
if you teach a woman--or, let me add, a girl--you educate a nation," 1964
Marietta Peabody Tree. "I'm afraid the University wouldn't
be able to function very well if all the women disappeared," 1987
Marion F. Pond.
The TCPW commissioned the Music Department
to compose a score specifically for the dedication. Dr. Anna
Weesner, assistant professor of music composition, composed
and conducted (below) Posses and Pioneers, scored
for women's choir, solo soprano, two percussionists and electric
bass. The text of the piece is a collection of fragments from
the quotations that are inscribed on the curbs and benches
at Hill Square.
Photos by Jacques-Jean Tiziou
Hamilton
Village
Hamilton College House
photos by Greg Benson
One of the public spaces that
has been upgraded, along with the apartments and suites.
Over the summer,
work was completed in Hamilton College House, inside and
out, transforming it into a modern,
attractive residence with new services and amenities. Over
the past two years, the building's exterior has gotten a face-lift:
the concrete has been repaired and coated with a sealant, tinted
in two subtle colors and the old window system has been entirely
replaced with windows organized in a lively pattern of panes
of several different shapes and sizes. A new slate-paved porch
comes out almost to the edge of Locust Walk, inviting visitors
toward a glass-enclosed vestibule and lobby with new stairways
and lighting. The lobby (above) has been redesigned,
lined with wood, reflective glass and stainless steel, natural
gray-green slate flooring, and a working fireplace.
Life Sciences Complex
To
promote the continued excellence of the life sciences at
Penn and to provide
a state-of-the-art physical environment that will stimulate
discovery and learning in this rapidly evolving field, the
School of Arts and Sciences has embarked on the construction
of 217,000 square foot complex to house the biology and psychology
departments. The ground was broken earlier this semester.
The new complex,
to be located behind the biology department's Leidy Laboratories
and near HUP, will create a hub for research and teaching in
the life sciences. The project will consist of two phases to
provide continuity for teaching and research. Construction
of the facility's core (Phase I), followed by the demolition
of two existing buildings and an expansion of the new building
(Phase II). The hallmark of the complex will be a modular floor
plan, allowing easy reconfiguration for emerging research priorities
and interdisciplinary collaboration. Features of the new Life
Sciences building include: