Save the BioPond
To the Editor:
The article about the proposed Life Sciences building ("Project for Life Sciences still on track," The Daily Pennsylvanian, 1/25/02) was another example of information distributed by a supposedly free press which read remarkably like a press release from the Penn administration. Nowhere in the article was it mentioned that the new building is to be built inside the BioPond Garden, effectively eliminating it.
Plans are for the five story Life Science Building to be built along the 38th Street side of the garden. Phase one would eliminate the toxic waste building (which is just outside the garden), greenhouses and many plants. Part of the new Life Sciences building would be built on this site. Phase two would tear down the Kaplan Wing and Mudd Laboratory and build the rest of the building on this site, completing a very long five story wall. Imagine Huntsman Hall (minus the tower) along one edge of the garden.
Provost Robert Barchi has said that the administration is capable of making the building taller and not as long. This is an excellent solution. If the building were taller, it would occupy the site of the toxic waste building. The new biology laboratories could be located in the same convenient place without destroying another section of the garden.
BioPond Garden gardener
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