It seems that Penn is always building something these days. Some stuff, like a new college house on Hill Field, we've covered already. Other stuff, like the new building under construction on 38th Street, we didn't even realize was happening until a reader tipped us off. This despite the fact that the construction has clearly been going on since the summer.
According to the Penn website, this will be an expansion of the Lynch Laboratories and will serve the Biology and Psychology departments at Penn. The building will house research laboratories, teaching facilities, and spaces designed for interactions to foster the kind of cross-disciplinary work that increasingly characterizes work in these fields. Oh, and it's gonna look super awesome.
Not only do we like the fact that the building is gonna be unlike any in this town, but we also appreciate the large green space that's going to spring up in front of it. In real life, actual people will replace the creepy rendering people and the space will hopefully get a great deal of use from both Penn people and folks in the community. Considering the price tag which will approach $70M, we hope the building and the land in front both get a staggering amount of use.
We'll be keeping an eye on this project, and look forward to sending along images of the building once it's finished. Perhaps for the fall 2015 semester.