and Seth Grossman There's been no less than a cosmic shift in campus retail since students left in May. And the transition isn't over yet. Houston Hall, with its hole-in-the-wall basement stores featuring fast food, t-shirts and other goods and services, is closed for renovations. University Plaza, the back of the Penn bookstore's one-story, brown-brick flat, housed a variety of stores -- florist, bookstore, jeweler, travel agency and comic book shop; health-food store and greasy-spoon diner. Most of those are closed now, too, about to make way for a Wharton classroom building. Meanwhile, the gleaming, brick-and-glass structure known as Sansom Common opened on a former parking lot spanning a block of Walnut Street. It features a huge, new University bookstore, plus a cafe/bar as well as soon-to-open clothing and cosmetics stores. A few blocks west on Walnut, a shiny, 1950s-style diner occupies a space in the Walnut Mall, which is also adorned by new signs -- including an electronic one displaying showtimes for the campus' only movie theater. Not to mention the roughly 100 food trucks, carts and other vendors displaced by a controversial city ordinance restricting their activities. Some have been corralled into five plazas scattered around campus; others were exiled to Market Street, away from the bustle of Walnut and Spruce streets. The cumulative effect of all the construction projects on campus that began or finished this summer has been to push the center of retail north and west -- precisely as University administrators envisioned two years ago when they unveiled plans for Sansom Common. The older, historic campus center will increasingly be the focus the academic and residential buildings at the heart of Penn's mission. Bounded by the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania to the south, University officials have long felt that its northern and western boundaries were most in need of revitalization. Now, the University has acted to make a vibrant nightlife and shopping district in University City. The change over the last six months has been sudden and striking. And though Locust Walk's heart will remain a lively strip for campus organizations to sell themselves to interested students, no longer will the University bookstore huddle near the base of the footbridge. In its place will rise a new, multi-story Wharton School facility, its roof rising to the level of peer buildings lining the length of the Walk. At present, two tenants remain in the University Plaza complex, holding on until the last minute -- a late fall or early winter demolition is likely -- before one, STA Travel, closes. The other, the Pennsylvania Book Center, is on the verge of moving to the 3401 Walnut Street complex. The man behind the changing face of the Penn campus is Executive Vice President John Fry. And his vision is a powerful one, if not universally shared or applauded. Indeed, his critics say Fry pays little heed to the opinions of community activists, Penn community members or other concerned parties. His supporters say he has succeeded in getting things done and avoided getting bogged down in consensus-building. The campus' long-perceived boundary along 40th Street and its perceived "service corridor" along Walnut Street have been the focus of his revitalization efforts. The Book Center will not be alone. Walnut Street has blossomed under Fry's vision. 1970s-era strip malls sitting on the northeast and southwest corners at the intersection of 40th and Walnut streets have received face lifts. New awnings and flower pots, repaved sidewalks and young shade trees now grace their facades. And while their retail mix has remained largely stable, major changes are in the offing for the intersection. Much-anticipated plans for a multi-story garage with a ground-level supermarket on the northwest corner will fill the campus' most requested need -- and create difficulties for the owners of convenience stores in both of the neighboring strip malls. Atop the 40th Street strip mall across Walnut from the planned market, Robert Redford's Sundance Cinemas is likely to build one of its first arthouse theaters, the centerpiece of a revitalized shopping center. The multiscreen theater would feature a coffee shop, a film library and films aimed at a sophisticated audience, including the graduate students who have been abandoning West Philadelphia in droves. And Penn has moved the Philadelphia Free Library branch to a University-owned location at 3927 Walnut Street from its historic but decaying building at the intersection's southeast corner. Plans have not been announced for the building, currently owned by the city. But the corner is the future for Fry. The present is Sansom Common, nearing completion on Walnut Street. The shopping and hotel complex, with its shining main entrance at the corner of 36th and Walnut, lights up what used to be a parking lot. Its anchor tenant, the University Bookstore, operated by Barnes & Noble College Bookstores Inc., is the first of the chain's university superstores. Other Sansom Common stores include the Xando coffee house bar, Parfumerie Douglas cosmetics and Urban Outfitters. That store is returning to Penn 28 years after it opened its original store in the warehouse on the 4000 block of Locust Street. The store closed last summer. Sansom Common's brick-and-glass facade opens up the northern face of the campus, bringing King's Court-English House College House into direct visual communication with the rest of the campus and adding to the flavor of the Sansom Street stores. Sansom Common's large sidewalk affords outdoor seating for Xando patrons. University officials hope to bring more late-night foot traffic to the area and are keeping the bookstore open as late as 11 p.m. Other stores have also seen requirements added to their new leases mandating extended evening and weekend hours. To the east of Sansom Common sits the revamped 3401 Walnut Street complex, which will feature an expanded Gap and new tenants Auntie Anne's Pretzels, Rose's Florists and University Jewelers this fall. New, flashier signs were installed on that building as well as the Walnut Mall complex over the summer.
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