Discover Penn

Hello, I'm Susan Weiler, partner at Olin. We’re a well-known landscape architecture studio based here in Philadelphia. Our collaboration with Jenny Holzer, the widely acclaimed text-based artist, helped to realize the campus walk you’re experiencing.

Stretching from 34th to 33rd Street, 125 years follows footprint of Woodland Avenue, one of the historic routes that connected the westward rural markets to Philadelphia. Completed in 2001, this reimagination of Woodland Avenue as a pedestrian campus connector also tells the compelling story of educating women at Penn. Along this elegantly designed serpentine walkway, this history unfolds along the curbing and the 22 benches. 

The entire length of curbing along the walkway and each bench is engraved with quotations selected by Holzer from the Penn Archives that span and celebrate first 125 years of women's contribution to the Penn community. The work is arranged chronologically starting at 34th and Walnut Streets along the north side of the curbing and returning from 33rd Street on the South side. The entire walk is framed by the alternating Tulip Poplars and custom design light fixtures that softly illuminate the benches and their quotations. Along this walkway you’ll cross a small wooden bridge near the midpoint of the walk. Formerly a stream bed, this low-lying area is now a bioswale planted with wetland species that capture and clean stormwater runoff for reuse. I hope you enjoy your experience at this unique gateway to the Penn campus. 

Hello, this is Michel van Ackere, Associate at Maki and Associates, the Tokyo-based architecture firm that led the design of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, in association with Ballinger Architects of Philadelphia. Funded by the Annenberg Foundation and completed in 2009, the Policy Center houses the premier communication policy research center in the country. The ground floor features a state-of-the-art public forum, or “agora” that hosts significant public debates and gatherings. The two-story agora then merges with a central skylit atrium that orients users to the encompassing program spaces. Overall, the building provides over 40,000 square feet of space for research centers including FactCheck.org, a television studio, administration offices and the forum.  

The site is tightly bound on all sides. Its main campus entrance is along 36th Street Walk, with a secondary entry from the west facing the Annenberg School.  These two entries establish a diagonal path of movement through the site, marked by corner cutouts in the building’s massing and exposed columns at the plaza level. 

The contemporary building’s massing and sloped atrium skylight carefully reflect the scale of the adjacent historic precinct. The exterior palette of layered insulated glazing and operable wooden sunshades present a modern "warm transparency," befitting a program dedicated to public policy. The layered façade is designed to reduce energy and allows occupants to control light, air and temperature within their offices.  

Coming soon! The Association for Public Art’s Museum Without Walls: AUDIO will bring you the story of Louise Nevelson’s Atmosphere and Environment XII told by the artist’s admirers, including a conservator of her work as well as her granddaughter. One of the most influential artists of the decades following World War II, Louise Nevelson was known for her wall-like monochromatic sculptures and incorporated a myriad of abstract forms. The 18,000 pounds steel sculpture was purchased by the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art) in 1971 and installed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1973. In 2019, the artwork was relocated to this site at the University of Pennsylvania on long term loan from the Association. 

Hi, this is Howard Berkowitz, President of the Class of 1962. As you were walking towards this bench, you probably wondered about the mysterious figure calmly sitting, reading a newspaper. As you got closer and arrived here, you may have realized that it’s none other than Ben Franklin, the founder of Penn. 

The bronze sculpture, called “Ben on the Bench” was designed by George Lundeen and donated by the Class of 1962 during our 25^th reunion in 1987. You may have seen Ben on the Bench before since he’s a pretty photogenic guy. He’s been seen on Philadelphia travel guides, university brochures, Good Morning America and other TV shows and publications. In 2003, Hillary Clinton stopped by to posed with him. It’s also tradition that before commencement every year, the President of the University and the honorary degree recipients visit “Ben on the Bench” to say hello and have their pictures taken.

Ben is clearly a campus and Philadelphia icon. Feel free to take a picture with him yourself! If you look carefully, you can see that he’s reading a copy of the Pennsylvania Gazette, the newspaper he owned and published that at one point was the most successful newspaper in all the colonies. Today, it is the name of the Penn’s Alumni association magazine. Another thing to take note of – as you walk away, you may have the eerie feeling that he’s watching you and thinking, “do something useful with your life.”

Hi, this is Joann Mitchell, Senior Vice President for Institutional Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer at Penn. You are standing in front of Brick House, a transformative sculpture described by its artist Simone Leigh as, “….part of a series entitled the anatomy of architecture,” in which she conflates ideas concerning the body and architecture as well as gender and representation. It is the first public sculpture installed on campus that was created by a Black woman. Simone Lee is a rising star on America's contemporary art scene, and she was the first Black woman to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in 2022. A gift from alumni Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman, Brick House was installed in November 2020. The bronze cast sculpture stands 16 feet high and weighs nearly 6000 pounds. Its bell shape can be interpreted in several ways - as a building like the home of the Musgum people of Cameroon, or as a wide hoop skirt of the antebellum South. However you interpret it, Brick House celebrates Black beauty and femininity. This impressive sculpture - with its location at the gateway to campus – symbolizes Penn’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

I hope you are inspired by Brick House as much as I am.  It is one of my favorite artworks on campus.

Hello and welcome, this is Dr. Larry Jameson, President of the University of Pennsylvania. I would like to share with you some background on Penn’s first building on our current campus, College Hall.  Located on College Green, College Hall is located at the center of Penn activity. 

It was designed by Professor Thomas W. Richards and was completed in 1873. College Hall was constructed using local green serpentine stone with polychromatic details.  Like many university buildings constructed after the Civil War, those at Penn were built in the Victorian Gothic style. But our use of the serpentine material is unique among these campuses. College Hall is one of the most notable Victorian Gothic buildings in Philadelphia and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its role in the history of collegiate architecture.

At one point, it housed all functions and offices of the University. College Hall now contains the offices of the President, the Provost, the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and the History department. The original college assembly room on the second floor is now a multi-purpose classroom and event space. College Hall is also home to the Philomathean Society, the nation’s oldest student literary organization, founded in 1813.

Now for some interesting trivia: Cartoonist and Penn alum Charles Addams is thought to have used College Hall as his inspiration for the mansion of the Addams Family movies and cartoons. In the movies, when Lurch the butler answers the door [of] Morticia and Gomez Addams’ [house], it’s actually College Hall that you see. 

Please enjoy your visit!

Eisenlohr Hall has been the official home of Penn’s president for the last 40 years, with the building’s rich history dating back to 1907, when construction began on the 25-room home for Otto and Josephine Eisenlohr. Otto, the son of a cigar maker, and in association with his three brothers, introduced and successfully marketed the popular 5-cent ‘Cinco’ and Henrietta cigar brands.

The design of the stately limestone Beaux Arts mansion has recently been credited to Julian Francis Abele, Penn’s first African American architectural graduate. From 1908 to 1938, Abele served as the chief designer in the firm founded by noted Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer. His role as the firm's chief designer Abele was credited with the design for the Free Library on the Parkway, and was one of the lead designers of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Trumbauer firm also designed Penn’s Irvine Auditorium. 

Many of details within today’s President’s House were inspired by Abele’s Beaux Arts training and Mrs. Eisenlohr’s interest in the Italian Renaissance style. The entrance lobby welcomes guests with an inlaid mosaic marble floor and each adjoining room is anchored by an Italian marble fireplace. The dining room is clad in rich mahogany paneling. On the landing of the grand stair, a large stained-glass window features a colorful strutting ostrich holding a horseshoe in its mouth, the trademark logo of the Otto Eisenlohr and Brothers Cigar Company. Behind the home, a private garden and fountain provide tranquil respite from the city, while serving as the host location for many University events. 

When Josephine Eisenlohr died in 1939, she bequeathed the property to Penn. The elegant residence first served as home to the School of Education, then numerous research centers and the General Alumni Society’s offices. Upon their arrival to Philadelphia in 1981, Penn’s sixth president, Sheldon Hackney and his wife Lucy decided to reside in this historic property, thereby making the Penn president more accessible to the campus community. This tradition has continued to be followed by presidents Judith Rodin, Amy Gutmann and now Liz Magill. 

Hello, my name is David Brownlee and I'm a professor of Modern Architectural History here in Penn’s History of Art department. The building that you've asked about is today called the Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts library, but it was completed in 1891 as the University Library serving the entire campus. Its designer was the famous Frank Furness, the greatest of the Philadelphia Victorian architects. 

I suspect that the first thing that you notice about this building is that it is red. Everything about it is ferociously red - red sandstone, red brick, red terracotta, red roof tiles, red painted wooden trim, even the copper, which is now green, started out as red of course. This vibrant color pulls together all the diverse materials in a visual and physical, and we would probably say, organic way. It matters almost not at all what style this building is, and in fact it's hard to say what the style is! It was Furness’ marvelously muddled together Romanesque and other medieval, even classical forms. What does matter is the strong and directly visual appeal, something as modern as an impressionist painting and it's addressed to the eye. 

But it's not just a matter of appearances. The University asked Furness to design this building in 1888 when it was just beginning to reorganize itself systematically and into the distinct schools and research divisions that are familiar to us today. “Specialization” had become a buzzword in business and industry and the booming industrial city of Philadelphia, its echoes were sounded loudly at Penn. 

Frank Furness’ biggest clients were Philadelphia’s railroads and banks and so it was presumed from the start that his new library building would be perfectly adapted to its purposes, as specialized in the modern railroad station or bank. To help plan the perfect library, Melville Dewey, inventor of the Dewey decimal system of book cataloging, was brought in as a consultant, and Furness quickly developed a plan that separated the various functions of the building in order to create ideal conditions for each of them. 

Since reading books required bright indirect light and an appropriately serious atmosphere, Furness built a stupendous four-story tall reading room lit from above. But storing the books­‑ which by the hundreds of thousands poured out of the steam-powered printing presses of the 19th century- that demanded another kind of space. And for Penn, Furness created the first new library with the bookstack, essentially a huge shed in which a towering multi-story steel bookcase system could be built. This bookstack was entirely separate from the reading room. Very plain, even industrial in detail and absolutely fireproof. Furness even designed the stack so that its outer wall could be moved and the whole building enlarged as the number of books grew. The library was also originally designed to house a large auditorium, and for this purpose Furness devised its own specialized solution. He placed the horseshoe shaped auditorium on the upper floor expressing its curved perimeter and the sweeping semicircular apse at the north end of the building. This placement required a large stair and for this he built a great tower over the library entrance and marked the ascending stairway with diagonally placed windows on the front of the building. The auditorium never functioned as such, for it was claimed soon as the building opened to display the burgeoning collections of the University Museum. When the main university book collection moved to Van Pelt Library in 1962, the old library, by now called the “Furness Building,” was reassigned to the Art and Architecture Library. This great work of architecture, simultaneously a poem in red and a factory for scholarship, was named a National Historic Landmark in 1972. You may enter the library and the Arthur Ross Gallery, a venue for changing exhibitions, through the main entrance and please visit the exhibition gallery of the university's wonderful Architectural Archives which has its own door at the north end of the building.

Hi, this is Alanna Wren Shanahan, Director of Athletics and Recreation. You are standing in front of Franklin Field, where an older facility built in 1895 once stood. The current building is the oldest two-tiered stadium in the nation. The lower seating bowl was completed in 1922 and the upper deck was added in 1925. It was designed by Day & Klauder Architects in the Italian Romanesque style, complimentary to the University Museum across Spruce Street. 

You may recognize it from a scene in Philadelphia filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan’s movie Unbreakable or from Mark Wahlberg’s heroic role in Invincible.

Some of the most well-known football players in the early 20^th century played and/or coached at Franklin Field, most notably John Heisman, of the Heisman Trophy fame. For many years, Franklin Field hosted the annual Army-Navy football game as well as the Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL. The Penn Relays track and field event, the oldest relay competition in the United States, occurs here every spring. This iconic facility also is home to Penn’s annual Commencement ceremonies and is used regularly by the Penn community for recreation, intramural, and club sports. 

In 2010, the Weiss Pavilion was added along the north side Franklin Field. The project includes an intercollegiate weight training room, the Robert Fox Fitness Center, available to the entire Penn community, the Education Commons study space, and retail. The project made use of the grand brick archways in the building’s original design by creating a bank 75’ feet high glazed windows, flooding the Pavilion with natural light. 

A multi-phased restoration project, completed in 2022, ensured the extended life of this historic stadium.

Hi, I'm Kameron Aroom with MVLA and we served as the landscape architect on the Gutmann College House. This college house expands on the rich tradition of Hamilton Village, with the building that frames an inner courtyard and lawn that forms the west gateway of Locust Walk. These two landscape spaces are designed to connect to the broader campus, promoting social interaction, integrating green infrastructure, and enriching the place with a variety of seasonal plantings. Water collected on terrace green roofs above is routed to a series of planters along the building perimeter, filled with a variety of perennials, grasses, shrubs, and trees. You will notice that there are over 30 different species of plantings used to enhance the site and its urban context. Use of permeable stone, brick, and asphalt pavements allow for water to slowly infiltrate into the site's existing soils. The inner courtyard and lawn are under drained to rain gardens that are planted with Sweet Bay magnolias – a medium sized tree that you've probably seen in other places on campus. It blooms to the very beautiful fragrance in the months of May and June. A pair of broad stone seat walls lift the central lawn slightly to meet Locust Walk providing comfortable seating for residents and visitors. During construction, great care was taken to preserve the existing canopy trees that create the shaded corridor of Locust Walk. These trees subtly defined the edge of the college house front lawn. 

Welcome to Kane Park. I'm Johanna Phelps, Senior Associate at MNLA, the landscape architects who designed this space. I'm excited to talk to you about this site, which was completed in 2013. As an alum of the Penn School of Design, just down the street, I remember this spot before it was a park. You probably don't know it, but you're standing in what was a surface parking lot. Over the years, this site has taken many different forms. Prior to becoming a parking island, it was an extension of Penn’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology site- a formal side garden that was physically connected to the Museum before 33rd Street was brought in. From the beginning, in 2009 when we started working on the project, the site design recognized the importance of this location at the juncture between the University and hospital campuses. While physically the triangle feels a part of the hospital campus, views to Franklin Field and Irvine Auditorium were emphasized in the circulation design to maintain a visual connection to university. Creating a place for visitors to find a quiet refuge from the business and activity of the surroundings was a priority. A dense layer of planting encircles the site and minimizes the feeling of being surrounded by cars. But the site’s greatest achievement is perhaps less obvious, the use of permeable pavement and an increase in the amount of planting area, both of which allow rainwater to infiltrate back into the earth, transform this asphalt parking lot from a site that was only 10% porous to a lush green park that is 90% absorbent. The park is named for Edward W Kane, a former University of Pennsylvania Trustee and donor of the park. You can find his name engraved in the granite that surrounds the central oval. Thanks for visiting.

Hello, I'm Bob Lundgren, University Landscape Architect here at Penn. I'm standing next to one of our rain gardens here on campus. This rain garden was installed during the Gutmann College House project to help manage stormwater in the area. We have many rain gardens across campus, but only one where the nurse log. The term ‘nurse log’ means that it supports many natural and ecological processes that go on every day in this region and in our world. You've probably seen nurse logs in the woods from fallen trees and branches supporting lichen, moss, burn and many microorganisms in the soil--the same thing is happening here. This red oak has been declining for years and was felled on this spot during the College House construction. It was cut into these segments and placed here among the other perennial shrubs and small trees native to this environment. These gardens do so much to preserve, protect, and promote important ecological processes. I recently said this nurse log is “ecology in your face,” and it is a fascinating display of nature. One of our challenges on campus is getting the word out and promoting the understanding of these environments. This garden is a great learning lab of sorts, constantly changing, evolving, and educating those who stop by. We’ve already had many students, staff, and faculty speak of this log, wondering why it is here and what it'll be like in years to come. I encourage you to visit the spot often and or in years to come, to witness this important piece of nature.

Hi, I am Michael Van Valkenburgh. My landscape architecture firm designed the 24 acres of open space and athletic fields in front of you known as Penn Park.  Formerly industrial land, the site now features both passive and active recreation and athletic components. Formal and informal play fields are framed and subdivided by canopy trees, lawns, and meadows. The large sculptural landforms help to frame the site, provide pedestrian pathways and connections through the park to Center City and the Penn campus above. 

The athletic fields consist of two multipurpose artificial fields, a softball field, a natural grass hockey field, twelve tennis courts, and an associated program. Penn Park also incorporates previous turf and has an underground water holding tank to recirculate rainwater for irrigation and reduce the amount of water directed to the sewer system. We chose native meadow vegetation and water-loving trees such as sycamores and willows in an effort to keep the site sustainable. 

I hope you enjoy your time at Penn Park.

Hello, I'm Shirley Blumberg, founding partner at KPMB Architects. I'd like to tell you about the Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics, which we designed and completed in 2018. At the time it was the first undergraduate building north of Walnut Street, which borders UPenn’s main campus to the south. The project combines heritage and contemporary architecture to create a new academic community for the departments of Political Science and Economics. At the corner of Walnut and 36th Streets on the southern end of the site, we renovated the historic West Philadelphia Title and Trust Company building, which dates from the late 1920s. It's notable as the first building to be designed in a vertical style in Philadelphia. We were inspired by the handsome elevations of this historic limestone building with its beautifully detailed two-story windows at grade. Our contemporary addition to the north references these heritage elevations in an abstract way. Its transparent two-story base extends the vibrancy of the plaza across 36th Street into the ground floor of the building where students hang out, study, and go to class. The wood-clad core of classrooms extends up to the second floor where glass-enclosed study and seminar rooms offer views to the daily life of the city precinct. the addition’s exterior palette of muted silver-colored metal, frosted and vision glass is designed to complement the limestone façade. We took advantage of this location to design striking views from corner meeting rooms in the building to the surrounding urban precinct to the downtown core and South connecting to the heart of UPenn’s celebrated main campus.

This is Andrea Blum. I am an artist from New York and have been making social sculptures in the United States and Europe since 1983. I was commissioned by the University of Pennsylvania, in cooperation with the Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia to make a work on the university campus at 40th and Walnut. The project was completed in fall 2006. The piece is called Plateau. I named it that because it is designed to have multiple flat levels which come together to form a three-dimensional puzzle of interlocking pavilions, tables, and seating. Plateau occupies approximately 4800 square feet and it's made of perforated steel and concrete, as well as having a built-in lighting system to give it a nightlife, both functionally and visually. With this project I wanted to provide various kinds of functional spaces for various kinds of social interactions, as well as being a communal space for the students, workers, and residents of the surrounding neighborhood.

Hello, my name is Karu Kozuma, the Executive Director for College Houses and Academic Services. At the end of the 1800s, Penn’s administration envisioned a collegiate life on campus that equal that of the great English universities. To that end, the Quadrangle or “the Quad” as most people call it, was opened in 1895 as a dormitory for undergraduate students with buildings designed to echo the dorms of Oxford and Cambridge.

Built piece by piece between 1894 and 1929 and then finished off in the 1950s, these 38 buildings each have central stairways that connect to student rooms. Each of these smaller buildings also contain spaces for gathering and each opened into one of the five courtyards that comprised the Quad. The courtyards of the Quad are a great reminder of what undergraduate life was like at the turn of the last century.

The raised platforms were constructed to be places from where upper-class students could watch the battles between the first years and sophomores below. The bosses, or sculptures, which many consider to be gargoyles that surround the buildings are remnants of the tradition of undergraduate caricature. If you look closely, you'll see that some of the bosses are owl-faced professors and donkey-eared upperclassmen. Today Quad houses some-1400 first year students divided between 3 college houses: Fisher Hassenfeld, Riepe, and Ware. On sunny days you’ll nearly always find students lounging in these courtyards, and in the winter, you'll find them dotted with occasional snow sculptures. Inside the houses you'll find Penn’s first year's gathering for social activities, attending a class taught by college house faculty in one of the living-learning communities, enjoying a quick meal at McClellan in the lower Quad, or quietly doing homework in their rooms. The Quad today is active as it's ever been as one of the primary hubs of residential life on Penn’s campus.

Hello, I’m José Almiñana, principal at Andropogon Associates, the firm responsible for the design of Shoemaker Green. This site provides a doorway to the historic structures that surround it, but it's also a welcome mix of open space, tree-lined walkways, and sitting areas. The former home to a tennis court complex, this 2 ¾ acre site now includes a performance-based landscape comprise of all native canopy, under-story, and herbaceous plantings supported by engineered soils. Shoemaker Green also includes pervious pavements, custom design benches, and energy efficient site lighting. Throughout the entire green, plant and soils filter rainwater and stormwater. These waters are then conveyed to a nearby underground retention tank that stores it for irrigation purposes. Just in front of you is the rain garden. This is not only a beautiful design feature, but it also serves to reduce the volume and rate at which storm water enters the city's sewer system. Shoemaker Green was chosen as one of more than 150 projects around the globe as the pilot for the new Sustainable Sites Initiative, also known as SITES. This is a rating system for sites and landscapes that is intended to be analogous to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system. As a new public commons area, the open lawn area is designed to accommodate large groups for special events, as well as cater to smaller audiences like an outdoor class or individuals for a lunchtime respite. This open space is a model for sustainable campus design.

Hello, I'm Marion Weiss, founding partner with Michael Manfredi of Weiss/Manfredi, the architecture firm that designed the Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology. Our design for the building is inspired by Penn’s philosophy of pursuing knowledge that transcends disciplinary boundaries. Unlike introvertive labs in earlier decades, we designed this building as a crystalline lens into the sciences, encouraging exchange and integration of knowledge that characterizes the cross-disciplinary research conducted in this building. 

The ascending spiral of highly specialized laboratories include the lower-level vibration and electromagnetic-sensitive microscopy and characterization lab, the main level clean rooms that glows with the light-sensitive amber glass, and two levels of general labs space that support diverse research teams. As the general labs and collaboration spaces ascend to the upper level, generous stairs with informal meeting terraces encourage dialogues that can spark innovation. At the upper level, the Glandt Forum, named after Penn’s inspired Dean of Engineering, hosts diverse academic events and cantilevers at 68-feet over the green, providing a destination to enjoy views of the historic core of Penn’s campus.

Even at night, the amber glowing Singh Center illuminates the new frontiers in nanotechnology.

Coming soon! The Association for Public Art’s Museum Without Walls: AUDIO will bring you the story of Jacob Epstein’s Social Consciousness. The eternal mother seated with arms outstretched is flanked by two standing female figures: one representing compassion on the left and another that personifies death on the right. Commissioned by the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art) in 1950, the sculpture stood for decades outside the west entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 2019, the artwork was relocated to this site at the University of Pennsylvania on long term loan from the association.

Hi there, this is Lynn Smith Dolby, Director of the Penn Art Collection.  I’m here to tell you a little about the sculpture in front of you, called the “Split Button”. One of the key features on College Green, the sculpture was designed Swedish-American artist by Claes Oldenburg and his wife Coosje van Bruggen.  Oldenburg is known for public art installations that replicate everyday objects. 

Installed in 1981, the Button is made of painted aluminum, weighs 5000 lbs, and is 16 ft in diameter. It is Oldenberg’s 2^nd outdoor work in Philadelphia. First is the clothespin downtown at 15^th and Market Streets, installed in 1976.  Oldenberg said that "The Split represents the Schuylkill. It divides the button into four parts--for William Penn’s original Philadelphia squares." It is Penn legend however, that Ben Franklin’s button from popped off the jacket of his replica behind you, in front of College Hall, and landed here.  The Button is one of the most recognizable pieces of public art on Penn’s campus and doubles as a jungle gym for toddlers. The sculpture is a much-beloved campus icon, meeting place and photo opportunity site, so feel free to take a picture now if you have your camera!