Locust Walk to get new, brighter lights

Lights are also being put up outside College Hall and the Furness Building. Locust Walk is going to look a whole lot brighter beginning next month. Construction workers began digging up routes in the grass along the campus thoroughfare in March, creating the foundation for what will be a new set of street lamps and floodlights. The project is set for completion by mid-May, in time for Commencement. Lighting up the Walk from College Green to 38th Street is the third phase of the University's multi-phased campus lighting master plan. The lighting project's first phase, which was completed last fall, consisted of installing floodlights at the tops of the high rises to brighten up Superblock, illuminating the Dental School and adding street lights to the Hamilton Village shopping center's storefronts along 40th Street. Phase two of the project lit Smith Walk, the athletic buildings around Franklin Field and the University Museum. The current phase includes the lighting of Locust Walk and the illumination of the Furness Building and College Hall. Until now, 12-foot tall street lamps have lined Locust Walk in a "zig-zag" pattern, according to Vice President for Facilities Services and Contract Management Omar Blaik. Starting next month, the lights along the Walk will stand in a "soldiering" pattern, with the lamps facing one another. "We won't have any dark or not-well-lit spots on any of the walkways," Blaik said, explaining that this formation allows the lamps to illuminate a wider area. He added that Penn's lighting plans resemble the lighting currently along Walnut and Locust streets in Center City. The lamps being installed on the Walk will be three feet taller than the existing lamps and will maintain a higher wattage, or greater intensity, of light. Existing lamps will not be discarded but reconstructed to include the three-foot extension in height and the new antique-looking light fixture on top. Lamps along secondary walkways -- including those leading from Locust Walk -- will have a different appearance. They will be taller and have a light fixture hanging down from a hook on the lamp post. Blaik said he hopes more lighting will bring students out into the streets and walkways of the campus at night. He noted that the Center City District, a quasi-governmental organization that uses a tax on local businesses to improve the area, was "able to transform the street life by having better illumination and revamping many of the retailers." As a safety precaution, workers are doing the digging along Locust Walk by hand in order to prevent any damage to the utilities underground. Normally, heavy machinery is used for such projects, Blaik said. In addition, the lack of loud noise means a more peaceful walk to class or afternoon on College Green. The digging around the Green is mostly completed, and construction crews will be moving farther west along the Walk this week. The lamp posts themselves, said Blaik, will be erected two weeks from now. The next phase of the lighting project, which will begin in the fall, will light up Hamilton Walk and the Medical School area, both located behind the Quadrangle. The University's campus lighting master plan is the result of a study conducted by lighting consultants last year who submitted recommendations on how to "stimulate use of the campus after dark and improve public safety and security." Although the cost of the project was not immediately available to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Blaik said it is being funded through a deal Penn made last year with the MBNA Corp. to put the University's name on MBNA America Bank credit cards and allow funds to be transferred from the credit card to student Penn-Cards.

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