Penn Children's Center moving to east campus

Displaced by plans for a new public school, it will go to the former Asbury Church site. Penn officials announced tentative plans yesterday to construct a new $6 million facility to house the Penn Children Center, a Penn-owned day care center, on the site of a burned-down church near 33rd and Chestnut streets. The new facility will span about 20,000 square feet and will accommodate up to 175 children -- almost twice the size of the center's current enrollment capacity. If University Trustees approve the plan, construction will begin in February 2000 and the building will open in fall 2001. The center is currently housed at 42nd and Locust streets but it will be evicted next year when Penn gives the land over to the city for construction of a new public school, which will be partially funded and operated by the University. Executive Vice President John Fry told members of the Trustees' Budget and Finance Committee that the University is looking into a potential partnership with Knowledge Beginnings, one of the leading day-care providers in the country. Under the contract, Knowledge Beginnings would take over the building, management and operating functions of the facility and would pay any costs that exceed the $3 million Penn would contribute through internal University loans. David Davenport, vice president of real estate for Knowledge Beginnings, said, "I believe at this point we have a contract to operate the child care center," but did not know any financial or construction details. He said Penn is making sure the construction will fit within its budget before finalizing any plans and that the University should make a final decision about the project in two weeks. The proposed new location for the PCC is on the ground that once held the Asbury Methodist Church, which burned down in March 1997 while the building was being converted into the Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall. After the fire, administrators scuttled the plan, and it was two years before Penn found an alternative location for the Graduate School of Fine Arts in Skinner Hall. Although Fry stressed at yesterday's meeting that the project plans have not yet been finalized, he said the relocation of the PCC "must get done" before construction on the new K-8 public school can begin in the spring. It is scheduled to open in September 2001. Besides the PCC, the site also holds the Parent-Infant Center and the University City New School. While the University has promised those two groups that they can remain on the site during construction, there is not enough space for the PCC -- which cares for children aged 12 weeks to five years in age -- to also remain. Associate University Vice President for Business Services Marie Witt said it is likely that the plan for the new building will go through. She added that because Penn is working under a "very aggressive time frame" to relocate the center, the decision-making process will "have to be fast-tracked." Although specific architectural details are still unknown, Witt said the new building will most likely be two stories and will be "devoted specifically" to PCC. The University had originally made plans to relocate PCC to the Newman Center at 3806 Chestnut Street but the local Archdiocese, which owns the building, backed out of those plans. University and Knowledge Beginnings officials considered about six other locations for the construction, including the Blauhaus site and the area across the street from David Rittenhouse Laboratory at 33rd and Walnut streets, Fry said, but chose the 33rd and Chestnut location because of its convenient access to parking and public transportation. In his proposal to the University Trustees, Fry also pointed out that the building will be on the "seam" of the Penn and Drexel campuses. Witt said that although the new building would give PCC a more centralized location, that the center would continue to primarily serve the University community. Currently, about 70 percent of PCC's children are affiliated with the University or the Health System. She said that while PCC will have spots for children not affiliated with the University, "we want to focus on Penn and the Health System? This will clearly be Penn's center." Santos Levy architects, who also designed the Philadelphia Please Touch Museum, have been selected for the project. The future of the University City New School remains unclear since they have not yet found a new home. The new public school will also likely cut into the New School's enrollment. The University has expressed desire for the small private school to merge with the new public school, but New School principal Betty Ratay said the school community wants to preserve its independence. Although Ratay said potential plans for a new PCC building will not have a major affect on UCNS, she said they underline the University's "further commitment to" building the new school. "It's exactly what we sort of expected," she added. Ratay said UCNS does not expect any financial assistance for relocation from the University. "They've already pulled the financial support out." PIC Director Marni Sweet said that despite the projected additional enrollment at the PCC, the PIC is still a necessary part of University City. "There is clearly a need for more child care to meet the needs of the faculty and staff and students of the University as well as the University City community," she said. Space availability will be a key factor in PIC's future enrollment, she said, because although the institution can remain at its current location, it will have less space than it currently does once construction is completed.

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