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March 06, 2009, 12:03 PM ET
U. of Pennsylvania Will Spend $40-Million on a New 'Penn Park'
A new park will extend the U. of Pennsylvania’s campus to the edge of the Schuylkill River. (U. of Pennsylvania images)
The University of Pennsylvania plans to spend some $40-million creating a park full of playing fields on 24 acres of land between the Schuylkill River and what is now the east end of the campus. The land, to be known as Penn Park, includes a large parcel that the university bought recently from the U.S. Postal Service, which used 14 acres of it for parking for what used to be Philadelphia’s main mail-sorting facility.
Plans for the park, which the university unveiled this week, include fields for soccer and softball, tennis courts, and bridges and paths for bringing park users down from elevated streets nearby. A plaza and walkways with berms are designed to hide railroad tracks and a highway while offering views of the Philadelphia skyline. The university says the park will be open to the public, although much of the time the playing fields will be reserved for student use. Areas of trees and meadow grasses will fill in the space around the playing fields.
The park, which is expected to be finished in two years, was designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. The site will include a system for capturing rainwater and using it for irrigation.
The university has been eager to create a visual connection between its West Philadelphia campus and downtown Philadelphia, and bringing the campus almost to the Schuylkill’s banks is a big step toward that goal—particularly since running paths and other amenities have started to appear on the river’s once-unappealing banks.
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