Penn announces $17.8 million Fisher Fine Arts Library renovation

Penn announced a $17.8 million renovation of Fisher Fine Arts Library, which is scheduled to begin in spring 2025.

The "envelope" restoration — which Senior Vice President of Penn Facilities and Real Estate Services Anne Papageorge announced at the Facilities and Campus Planning committee meeting of the Penn Board of Trustees on Nov. 14 — is intended to restore the outside of the 133-year-old building to its original form. Construction is anticipated to take place from April 2025 through November 2026 and will involve extensive scaffolding around the building.

The renovation will include the clearing of sandstone, replacement of windows, repairs to the roof, and the installation of lightning and fall protection on the outside of the building. The library will remain open during construction, and renovation work will continue during library hours.

At the trustee meeting, Daniel Vodzak — the principal architect on the project — called the project a "noisy operation."

Fisher Fine Arts Library is notably a quiet space on campus, as occupants are asked not to hold loud conversations or take calls within the library space. Several signs are posted around study spaces in the building reminding students of the policy.

“We will do our best to work with the occupants to minimize the disruption,” Papageorge said at the meeting.

She added that the team had considered a “multi-summer strategy” in order to avoid noise disturbance during periods when students utilize the building, but ultimately decided against it.

“The challenge is that the three months we have [during summer] is insufficient for renovation,” she said. “We were concerned about maintaining the consistent quality of work.” 

The visible portions of the library’s surface will be significantly limited during construction. A construction fence similar to the one erected during the recent renovation of College Hall will be present during the renovation, according to Vodzak.

“It will be evident during probably the whole 20 months of the process that there is construction happening on the outside of the library,” Colin McKelvie, Penn's Director of Design and Construction, told The Daily Pennsylvanian.

McKelvie added that he did not yet know what campus closures, if any, would result from the construction.

Since the building's completion in 1891 under the name of Furness Library, it has undergone several series of renovations and expansions. At the meeting, Papageorge mentioned previous renovations that occurred in 1991, 2003, 2006, 2013, and 2015.

Papageorge said at the meeting that it was “time to invest yet again” into the building.

According to Penn Libraries, the Fisher Fine Arts building is “regarded as one of the most important library buildings in the world.” The library was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1985. 

“Whenever I have guests on campus I always take them to go see Fisher Fine Arts, just because it’s a really beautiful building,” Wharton sophomore Amanda Qu told the DP.