Renovations on Quad completed

With new plumbing, air conditioning in every room and many new benches, the University has finished the last phase of its four-year plan for the Quadrangle renovations, leaving the class of 2006 with a revamped freshman haven.

The $75 million project not only remedied the normal wear and tear of a century old building, but also made the Quad more adaptable to the new college house system.

"The building was very old and needed to be upgraded and provided with new systems of mechanical service, including making it waterproof and restoring old brickwork and masonry," said former College Houses and Academic Services Director David Brownlee, who oversaw the project. "Another goal was to adapt it to serve the college house program, which meant a gigantic investment in public space."

Brownlee said that this investment allots each college house an office, a mail room, a set of meeting rooms each with its own seminar rooms, music practice rooms and exercise rooms.

With all these new additions, Brownlee said he feels confident that Penn achieved its goal.

"What we have created now is a trio of college houses -- Spruce, Ware and Woodland -- with a similar set of public spaces," he said. "This summer, we basically finished the third of the three college houses."

And Quad buildings are not alone in reaping the benefits of renovation -- the Upper Quad lawn now resembles a lush park.

"The landscaping is very stunning," Housing and Conference Services Director Doug Berger said. "It is going to be a very beautiful place for students, with lots of trees, lots of walkways and lots of benches."

According to Berger, the changes include an amphitheater area and a hard surface courtyard in "the nipple," the westernmost area of Woodland College House.

College and Wharton junior Brian C ceres, a resident advisor in Ware, said he likes the Quad's cosmetic improvements.

"I think the changes really make the Quad look nice compared to a couple of years ago," C ceres said. "The Quad is a lot more appealing."

But C ceres said he feels some of the renovations were a bit pricey, as an RA meeting informed him that installing plaques and dry erase boards on the doors of every room cost approximately $250,000.

"I think they could have spent the money in a better way," C ceres said. "I think other issues could have been taken care of with that money, especially because RAs and GAs like to personalize their own hall and could have fulfilled that on their own."

Brownlee, however, said that the amount spent on signs was closer to $100,000, and serves an important purpose.

"Part of the project was to make the building more understandable, so we did spend some money making it clearer," Brownlee said. "The truth of the matter is there's not much you can buy with $100,000... it is a minute amount of money, and the money spent on signs could not have bought much else."

With those financial differences aside, C ceres said that, on the whole, he thinks the renovations were a good idea.

"I think many residents might treat the area with more respect and not do as much damage because it is such a nice area," he said.

As a soccer fan, C ceres said he has spent the last couple of days enjoying the newly improved lawn, rife with a new type of exceptionally thick grass.

"The grass is really sturdy because it is a new special type that does not get torn up easy," he said. "I have been out a bunch of times when it has been wet, and the grass still does not get torn up."

C ceres said that he especially appreciates the timeliness with which Penn completed this phase, noting that at the end of last summer, the Lower Quad still looked like a giant construction site.

"Everything is done on time, so that is a big plus," he said. "We have been really happy that the construction crew worked on schedule."

Vice President for Facilities and Real Estate Services Omar Blaik said this feat is particularly impressive because of the logistics involved with working in the Quad.

"I would say a week worth of work in the Quad was worth a month in any other project," Blaik said. "If you are late one week, that means they are late one month. If you screw up in one week, you screw up a whole month."

"The stakes were so high," Blaik added. "I'm just absolutely happy about it.... Pleased is an understatement."

And according to Brownlee, staying on schedule is only one of the construction crew's many virtues.

"It is very difficult for a group of students who come back after summer to realize the team of workers working under a construction company," Brownlee said. "Most of the days this summer, there were between 300 and 350 workers working on the construction."

"These are real people who have spent the last five years of their lives working on this project," he added. "All of these people worked their living guts out to give another century of life to the Quad."

And this revitalization did not come without its share of difficulties, Brownlee said, noting that at its inception, "the Quad was really just a huge conglomeration of student sleeping rooms with no public space at all."

"It is a gigantic project and there are discoveries at every corner you turn," Brownlee said. "A commitment to work on older buildings is a commitment to deal with the unknown."

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