In fall 1998, the University announced a comprehensive overhaul of nearly every dormitory on campus and a plan to build 1,000 new beds as part of a new college house in Hamilton Village. The centerpiece would be the renovation of the three high rises, which were nearing the end of their usable lives.
Two years later, most of the plan, including repairs to the high rises, was put on hold. The $380 million that the project required simply was not there.
Unfortunately for the University and its residents, the high rises did not stop aging, and today, nearly four years after the original plans were unveiled, the high rises are nearly uninhabitable.
On Wednesday, the University released a greatly scaled-down renovation plan that is designed to shore up the high rises for another 15 or 20 years. The proposal, though long overdue, is far more realistic than the 1998 plan and attacks the problem in an intelligent and sensible way.
Rather than a wildly ambitious attempt to remake residential life at the University, the new plan addresses the most serious flaws found in Hamilton, Harnwell and Harrison college houses.
Over the next two years, Hamilton College House will be the first renovated. The antiquated elevators will be repaired and upgraded, sprinklers will be installed in all student rooms, the decaying concrete will be replaced and new windows will be installed.
What's more, unlike the 1998 scheme, the University seems to have already established the funding for the project, eliminating the reliance on a large donor that doomed the initial plan.
We hope that with the more modest proposal, the needed repairs to the dilapidated high rises will be made. Penn cannot afford to put off these renovations for much longer.
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