PENN CONNECTS | A VISION

FOR THE FUTURE

Vicki Duncan
November 19, Adrienne Warrell
2007 Richard S. Reid
 PENN CONNECTS |
A VISION FOR THE FUTURE
Penn Connects is an
ambitious expansion of
the University of
Pennsylvania’s campus
eastward toward the
banks of the Schuylkill
River and Center City
Philadelphia

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PENN CONNECTS |
A VISION FOR THE FUTURE
INCREASED
CONNECTIVITY WITH
PHILADELPHIA AND
GREEN SPACE
ACADEMIC AND
RESEARCH
DEVELOPMENT
OFFICE AND
COMMERCIAL
DEVELOPMENT

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PENN CONNECTS | A VISION FOR THE FUTURE

INCREASED
CONNECTIVITY WITH
PHILADELPHIA AND
GREEN SPACE

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PENN CONNECTS |INCREASED CONNECTIVITY WITH PHILADELPHIA
AND GREEN SPACE
BRIDGES OF
CONNECTIVITY
• Living Learning Bridge
• Sports Recreation Bridge
• Health Sciences / Cultural
Bridge
• Research Bridge
• Literary and Symbolic
Connection
- West Campus to East
Campus
- Penn to Philadelphia

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PENN CONNECTS |INCREASED CONNECTIVITY WITH PHILADELPHIA
AND GREEN SPACE

GREEN SPACE
The expansion plan includes the creation of
recreation parks and green space in
addition to buildings and parking lots.
•Penn Park
•Weave Bridge
•Palestra Green
•Franklin Field Pavilion

Open Public Green Space

•Athletic Fields
•Retail shopping and dining corridor
•Art and cultural venues

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PENN CONNECTS |INCREASED CONNECTIVITY WITH PHILADELPHIA
AND GREEN SPACE
INFRASTRUCTURE AND
THE ENVIRONMENT
Growing Greener Plan
• Climate neutrality
• High-performance
buildings
• Smart land use
• Enhanced
transportation

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PENN CONNECTS | A VISION FOR THE FUTURE

ACADEMIC AND
RESEARCH
DEVELOPMENT

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PENN CONNECTS | ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT

OVERVIEW
Key Locations of these new facilities
include:
•32nd Street and Civic Center Boulevard
•3200 Block of Walnut Street
•University Avenue and Woodland Walk

The new academic facilities are in various

stages of completion, construction or
planning.  

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PENN CONNECTS | ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT

32ND STREET AND CIVIC

CENTER BOULEVARD
• New Research Building, School of
Medicine
• Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine
• Proton Therapy Center  

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PENN CONNECTS | ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT

3200 BLOCK OF WALNUT

STREET
• Krishna P. Singh Nanotechnology Center

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PENN CONNECTS | ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT

UNIVERSITY AVENUE AND

WOODLAND
• Lynch Biology Laboratory
WALK
• Neural-Behavioral Sciences Building

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PENN CONNECTS | A VISION FOR THE FUTURE

OFFICE AND
COMMERCIAL
DEVELOPMENT

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PENN CONNECTS |OFFICE AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT

REDEVELOPMENT OF THE
POSTAL LANDS
Center City West: Development
promotes expansion of Philadelphia
CBD into West Philadelphia.

Development Highlights:
•Large-scale partnership between
the University of Pennsylvania and
Brandywine Realty Trust
•Walnut Street Tower
– 500,000 sq. ft. office space
– 225-room hotel
– 125,000 sq. ft., 50-unit
residential condominium.
• Chestnut Street Tower
• 300,000 sq. ft. for rent
residential
• 20,000 sq. ft. of lobby retail
• Area located in a KOIZ

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PENN CONNECTS |OFFICE AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT

WALNUT STREET GATEWAY

High rise development lining the south side of Walnut
Street across from the Postal Lands Redevelopment.
•Creates a new “front door” for the University of
Pennsylvania and helps provide better linkage to
Center City
•Brings together office, commercial, residential,
academic and recreational development.

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PENN CONNECTS |OFFICE AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT

ECONOMIC IMPACT
• Expansion of the Philadelphia
CBD into West Philadelphia could
promote additional large-scale
office development in West
Philadelphia in the future.
• Increased land rent costs in the
immediate as well as the
surrounding areas.
• Multiplier effect

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OVERALL ECONOMIC
IMPACT
Benefits Costs
• Preservation of historic Post • Gentrification costs: no longer
Office economically feasible for the
• Multiplier effect area to remain mixed income?
• Clean-up and improvement of • Diversion of funds from student
environment services
• Limited impact on neighboring • Should Penn take such an active
residents because expansion is role in the local economy? What
into area that was industrial not are the risks and consequences
residential, unlike Temple or of too much economic
Columbia, where expansion has centralization?
effect on neighboring residents.
• Repositioning of unused
industrial corridor to attractive
space
• Lost Post Office jobs replaced by
IRS jobs
• Localization around existing
research and commercial
facilities
• Increased marginal productivity
• Capital deepening URBS 456 Presentation | 17
• Destination Penn
PENN CONNECTS | A VISION FOR THE FUTURE

QUESTIONS AND
COMMENTS?

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