It's been almost half a year since we told you about Perry World House, a project at 3803 Locust Walk on Penn's campus, and as you can imagine there's been some considerable progress since then. A reminder, this building will be a great resource for International Relations majors and will eventually host events to increase international engagement, encourage research regarding international issues, and help to transmit that research to the rest of the world. Of more interest to this real estate blog, it's got a very unique architectural element to it. The new building will be, as Hidden City called it, an example of hybrid preservation.
When Penn's superblock was established in the 1960s, almost every building was demolished between 38th & 40th, Spruce & Walnut Streets. 3803 Locust and its neighbor 3805 Locust (now the Kelly Writers House) were among the handful of surviving structures. Between the 1950s and a couple of years ago, 3803 Locust was used as a frat house and it looked like this in 1970.
1100 Architect has taken the building, built in the 1850s, and given it new life by tearing half of it down. As we told you before, the plans call for saving half of the building and integrating it with a new, contemporary structure. The original timeline called for completion this spring, so we'll see what the next two months will bring. When it's done, it will look something like this:
There's been quite a bit of progress on the exterior, and it looks like the rendering isn't that far off.
This is such a cool idea and it appears as though it's being well executed too. If you find yourself in the area, it's really worth seeing this project in person.