A little while back, we heaped some scorn on the University of Pennsylvania for their unexciting new building on the northwest corner of 39th & Walnut. We lamented that this structure, which replaced an old diner, brought little to the table from an architectural standpoint, especially when considered alongside the contemporary Radian in one direction and gorgeous old West Philly homes in the other. At least we eventually learned that the building does, contrary to our initial understanding, come with some retail space.
To be clear, we're not negative nancies over here- we just call 'em like we see 'em. And with that in mind, today we'd like to throw some praise at Penn for their ongoing project at 38th & Baltimore. At the beginning of this year, when we first checked in on the expansion of the Lynch Laboratories, the building had just been framed out in steel. When we passed by recently, the building had come a very long way. And it looked awesome. Hooray for interesting architecture!
In case you don't remember, this expanded building will serve Penn's Biology and Psychology departments. It will house teaching facilities and research laboratories, and it will have a sweet outdoor space as well. The price tag for the project will be almost $70M, but we think Penn can foot the bill. Makes us wish we had an endowment worth $9.6B. Even if we win the Powerball, we won't even have 2% of that. Yikes.
Here's another look at the rendering of the building and its associated outdoor space.
Look for it to wrap up in the first half of next year.