Crawford Architects for Franklin Field Pavilion Project
February 19, 2008, Volume 54, No. 22	Print Issue

The University of Pennsylvania has selected Crawford Architects to design a new athletic performance center in Penn’s Franklin Field, the oldest NCAA stadium still used for football. 

The center will feature an intercollegiate strength and conditioning center for the University’s 33 men’s and women’s athletic teams and a fitness center to complement Penn’s Pottruck Health and Fitness Center.

The design strategy proposes infilling the northern facade and concourse of Franklin Field with a two-story, 22,500-square-foot facility that can accommodate an expanded recreation and intercollegiate athletic program. Plans also include a new retail space suite. Outside the pavilion, a new landscape design strategy will improve the physical connections from the stadium westward to the core of campus and eastward to the newly acquired postal lands and the soon-to-be-designed 14-acre Penn Park, the focus of Penn Connects, Penn’s 30-year campus development and expansion plan.

“This new space will allow for the expansion of the intercollegiate athletic weight-training program with new facilities that support our student-athletes, as well as a new retail use and landscape improvements that support Penn’s campus plan,” Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky said.

The Franklin Field Pavilion is slated for completion in late 2009 and is one of several new projects being constructed, or renovated, under Penn Connects. Additional information is available at www.pennconnects.upenn.edu.