After undergraduate students left campus at the end of the spring semester, construction projects to build and renovate select locations on campus went into high gear, and Penn has renamed several buildings.
Here’s an overview of all the changes made on campus since spring 2022.
Buildings Renamed
Former Penn President Amy Gutmann departed Philadelphia to serve as the United States Ambassador to Germany in February. Now, two buildings on campus will be named in her honor.
This summer, construction began at Amy Gutmann Hall, a new Penn Engineering building for data science. Located adjacent to Lauder College House at 34th and Chestnut streets, the building will serve as a collaborative research hub for Penn’s 12 schools.
Amy Gutmann Hall will provide research space for cost-effective health care and use for programs such as Inveniam, a lab providing STEM opportunities to socioeconomically underserved and underrepresented students in Philadelphia. The building will also be the first to use mass timber building, which replaces fossil fuel-dependent concrete and steel frames with a more sustainable resource.
Construction at Amy Gutmann Hall is scheduled to conclude in summer 2024.
In July, Penn also announced that New College House West would be renamed Gutmann College House. The newest addition to Penn’s College House system opened in fall 2021, housing 450 sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The building joined Lauder College House as the second college house constructed during Gutmann’s tenure.
In May, Penn announced that the Morgan Building would be renamed Stuart Weitzman Hall, in honor of 1963 Wharton graduate Stuart Weitzman. The name change will accompany renovations to redesign the building’s interior, adding new research facilities, design studios, classrooms, and offices.
Campus Renovations
Construction projects both big and small were underway all across campus this summer. The Class of 1949 Bridge straddling 38th Street underwent repairs, and new stones were placed in the compass on Locust Walk.
Stouffer College House is also undergoing renovations, which are scheduled to finish in summer 2023. The residential building — which is currently not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act — will now feature ramps leading in and out of the dorm, and new elevators will be installed. Bathrooms and doors will also be remodeled to be ADA accessible.
The development of a new building connecting the Graduate School of Education building and Stiteler Hall is also in progress, which is the first major expansion for GSE since 1966. The $35.6 million project is expected to be completed in August 2023 for fall occupancy, allowing for more collaboration space and a new innovation lab to accommodate the rapidly increasing GSE class sizes.
The merger of Stiteler Hall and the GSE building is part of the Power of Possibility campaign, which aims to centralize GSE education and better accommodate the growing student population. The new building will replace existing social spaces like coffee shops that used to reside in the intermediate area.
The Penn Boathouse, located on Philadelphia’s historic Boathouse Row, is also undergoing a complete upgrade that will largely be completed by the end of summer 2022. A two-story entrance lobby will be constructed, which will house Penn Rowing artifacts and memorabilia. An expanded athletics room will also be built, serving as a location to host events.
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