University Park Campus Tour
1. Old Main
Old
Main is a historic icon and is one of the most recognized symbols of
Penn State. It was designed by Charles Klauder, a nationally
recognized architect of academic buildings. Old Main is widely
considered one of his finest works. The original Old Main was
completed in 1863 and was demolished in 1929 following a major fire.
The "new" Old Main, which was completed in 1930, incorporates the
exterior limestone and "Class of 1904" clock salvaged from the first
Old Main. Old Main was added to the National Registry of Historic
Places in 1981.
The majority of Klauder’s original design is still intact today, due to the University’s careful maintenance and appreciation for the building’s design excellence. However, over the past 78 years, normal wear and deterioration, as well as necessary renovations to accommodate changes in use, have compromised preservation of some of the building’s original features.
Penn State in the process of developing a Master Plan for Old Main that identifies the architectural and building systems issues currently faced at Old Main. The plan will also set up rules for future work to Old Main, identifying those spaces and aspects of the building which are the most “character defining” of Charles Klauder’s original design intent from a preservation standpoint, and how future modifications and updates to the building should be approached.
2. Pollock Road
The
need to upgrade utilities under Pollock Road provided the opportunity
to improve this busy corridor through the heart of campus.
From the intersection at Burrowes to its intersection with Shortlidge, Pollock Road has been transformed into a unified and distinguished campus core that now emphasizes the pedestrian.
The width of the roadway has been reduced. Brick sidewalks, brick crosswalks, and lighting have been added throughout. The many new benches and trees that now line the street add a comfortable pedestrian scale to the environment. Brick markers with granite thresholds signal the crossing at Pattee Mall.
3. Hintz Family Alumni Center
Completed
in Spring 2002, the Hintz Family Alumni Center is home to the world’s
largest dues-paying alumni association (more than 160,000 members). It
serves as a gathering spot and a “home away from home” for alumni. All
alumni activities are coordinated from here. This site in the heart of
campus reflects the Alumni Association’s goal to be an integral part of
the campus community.
The Alumni Center is connected to University House, the oldest building on campus. This historic landmark was home to 11 of Penn State’s presidents from 1864 to 1970. It was renovated for its new use, and incorporated into Penn State’s new Alumni Center in 2001.
The Hintz Family Alumni Center won an “Excellence in Historic Preservation and Adaptive Reuse” award from the Centre County Historical Society Board of Governors and an “Award of Recognition” from the American Institute of Architects.
The gardens at the Hintz Family Alumni Center are among the most recognized and appreciated spaces on campus. Private philanthropy provided the opportunity to create a landscape oasis that includes a pond and commemorative bridge, as well as a secluded circular sitting area, and limestone seat wall that frames the historic vista between University House and Old Main. Many wedding pictures are taken in these gardens.
4. Information Sciences and Technology Building
This exciting and innovative facility was designed to be a symbol of Penn State’s technological prowess in the 21st century. It has already achieved icon status as one of the most impressive and recognizable buildings at Penn State.
The IST Building houses the School of Information Sciences and
Technology (IST), and the Department of Computer Science and
Engineering for the College of Engineering. IST faculty and students
are engaged in exploring a range of areas, including: information
seeking, agent and avatar design, service science, games,
entertainment, and the issues posed by information security and
privacy. Our graduates are in high demand across a wide spectrum of
fields, as evidenced by a 95% cumulative placement rate.
By
merging the hardware design emphases in computer engineering with the
software design emphases in computer science, we now have the critical
mass to offer breadth and depth in our Department of Computer Science
and Engineering - the fastest growing department in the Penn State
College of Engineering. Students utilize the latest technology in
their classrooms and state-of-the-art instructional labs. Both faculty
and students have received prestigious awards and fellowships.
This
200,000 square foot facility also solved one of the most important
challenges facing the University – to safely and seamlessly unite West
Campus with the core. The spine of the IST building creates a “campus
connector” for pedestrians and bicycles that is an extension of the
Pollock Road mall.
5. Recreation Hall Addition
Portions of Rec Hall were expanded and renovated to meet the huge
demand for student fitness facilities, enhanced varsity athletic
training facilities, and upgraded wrestling practice spaces. Rec Hall
is home to Penn State Men’s & Women’s Gymnastics, National Champion
Men’s & National Champion Women’s Volleyball, Men's and Women's
Soccer and Men’s Wrestling. It also holds 2 gymnasiums,
state-of-the-art Fitness Facilities, racquetball and squash courts, an
indoor track and Golf nets.
Another goal of this expansion project
was to improve pedestrian circulation to and through Rec Hall. This
was accomplished by adding two new prominent entrances to Rec Hall -
one from Burrowes Road and one from Atherton Street – that join inside
the building with a new lobby.
6. White Course Apartments
White Course Apartments provides a unique environment for full-time graduates – singles, couples, and families. A supportive staff and an excellent safety/security program help to make graduate life easier and more comfortable. Special activities and programs help residents get to know one another – and form friendships that will last a lifetime.
One-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments and townhouses make up family housing at White Course Apartments.
Singles apartments feature 75 four-bedroom units with common areas for 300 residents.
7. Celebration Garden
Penn State's class of 2007’s gift to the
University is a Celebration Garden at Recreation Hall. This garden
improves the area near the main entrance with a garden and seating.
Rec
Hall holds a special place in the hearts of Penn Staters, and their
gift enhances this historic landmark. Located in a highly visible part
of campus, this area is frequented by many alumni and visitors who stay
at the Nittany Lion Inn and visit the Lion Shrine. Also, more students
attend the new gym in Rec Hall than ever before.
The funding for
the class gift came from class of ‘07 seniors pledging all or a portion
of their general deposit or making cash gifts. The $100 deposit is held
by the University during a student's time at Penn State and is used to
cover any unforeseen expenses, fees, and emergency costs.
Penn
State seniors have been making class gifts to the University for more
than 100 years. This began when the class of 1861, at their reunion in
1890, gave the University a portrait of Penn State's first president,
Evan Pugh, that still hangs in the lobby of Old Main.
8. Curtin Road Transit Center
Curtin Road is one of the busiest transit areas
on campus -- for both pedestrians and number of buses. Previously
buses had to stop in the road. This project provides space for three
eastbound buses and three westbound buses to pull off Curtin Road to
load and unload passengers safely on the sidewalk while allowing
vehicles to pass.
The transit center features enlarged,
custom-designed bus shelters, which have metal roofing and brick
columns. New walkways, lighting and benches; new landscaping and
increased grass areas; and improved ADA access of the Fisher Plaza area
have been introduced. The entire area has new street and walkway
lighting. The Pattee Library book drop has been moved permanently to
the main entrance of the library to improve access and safety for those
at the bus transit center.
9. Pasquerilla Spiritual Center
The
Pasquerilla Spiritual Center and the Eisenhower Chapel form one of the
largest religious centers on a public university campus in the nation.
This 29,000 square foot facility accommodates more than 30 faiths, all
of which were involved in the design process of the building.
The Center features a two-story core worship area that can
accommodate 477 people, and three adjoining chambers with an additional
260 seats that can be opened to the main area or closed off as separate
rooms. It includes several other program rooms that can be used for
prayer, worship or other functions, and contains a kosher kitchen.
10. Stuckeman Family Building
The
Stuckeman Family Building is the new home of the Department of
Landscape Architecture and Architecture. The building is named in
honor of H. Campbell “Cal” Stuckeman (BS Arch’37) and his late wife,
Eleanor.
The building is Penn State's first LEED-rated academic building. The design and construction teams worked diligently to ensure the building received a Gold rating.
The new building meets the goal to be open—the main jury space and gallery open onto an atrium that is part of the main East-West pedestrian "street" on campus. The studio space core of the building is a ribbon connecting two-story high-ceiling work-space floors and a linking mezzanine of review and gallery spaces. The studios also open to the outside via a skin designed for optimum daylighting and natural ventilation, and at night the ghostly figures of late-night designers silhouetted in the windows becomes an active billboard for the design professions.
11. Food Science Building
The
new 130,000 square foot Food Science Building on Curtin Road includes
academic offices and laboratories for the Department of Food Science;
manufacturing and sales facilities for the Creamery; and new pilot
plants. Its modern processing equipment enables the Creamery to serve
as a laboratory for food science faculty and students conducting dairy
research and for dairy industry professionals testing solutions to
technical problems. Researchers use the Creamery's facilities to study
the effects of processing and storage on a dairy product's
microbiological makeup, nutritional value, and flavor.The new creamery
sales room is approximately twice the size of the previous creamery
attached to Borland Building. In addition, the new outdoor plaza can
accommodate up to 200 people at tables, benches, and seat walls.
This building is at the south terminus of the East Subcampus
promenade that connects to the meadow overlooking the Arboretum to the
north.
12. Forest Resources Building
The
new 96,000 square foot building meets the needs of the School of Forest
Resources, housing programs in forest sciences, wildlife and fisheries,
and wood products. This building is in close proximity to most of the
College of Agricultural Sciences buildings and contains research
laboratories, classrooms, specialized teaching laboratories, and a GIS
laboratory.
The Forest Resources Building is certified as sustainable
architecture by LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
It has Penn State’s first green roof, which advances the University’s
sustainability initiatives by reducing stormwater run-off, reducing the
costs to heat and cool the building, and extending the life of the
roof.
The atrium and other interior spaces in the Forest
Resources Building feature local hardwoods. The building’s curved
façade echoes the curved glass atrium of the Business Building and
completes the composition framing the meadow and overlooking the
arboretum.
13. Smeal Business Building
The
Smeal Business Building is the largest academic building on campus and
houses the Smeal College of Business, which offers highly-ranked
undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and PhD degrees. Featuring academic
departments of accounting, finance, insurance and real estate,
management and organization, marketing, and supply chain and
information systems, the college is also home to major research centers
in areas such as supply chain management, business-to-business
marketing, corporate innovation and entrepreneurship, and other
disciplines.
The Business Building was the first component of the East Subcampus infill development project. Three new academic buildings and a new parking deck frame acres of new green space overlooking the arboretum. Almost 10 acres of paving were removed to create this subcampus at University Park. It was the most ambitious planning project on campus since the 1930’s.
This building was designed by the world-renowned architect Robert A.M. Stern. The Princeton Review recently named the Smeal College of Business as the business school with the best facilities in the country.
The building includes a graduate wing, and an undergraduate wing, united by a 4-story atrium overlooking the meadow and the Arboretum on Park Avenue. The lobby is a spectacular asset that is frequently requested for events by other colleges.
14. Arboretum at Penn State
The
arboretum encompasses almost 400 acres that extend from Park Avenue to
Route 322, adjacent to the College Heights and Overlook Heights
neighborhoods. Programs and facilities will be oriented towards
outreach, teaching and research. The Arboretum at Penn State will be
open to the public. The master plan for the botanic gardens includes
plantings of species from around the world and state-of-the-art
educational and research facilities. Future plans include a visitors'
center, conservatory, and children's education center.The Arboretum
will be almost entirely funded by philanthropic support.
Construction
of Phase One has begun thanks to a generous gift by Penn State alumnus
Charles “Skip” Smith. The key programmatic features of this phase
include the Conservatory’s West Terrace, the Rose and Fragrance Garden,
the Event Lawn, and Overlook Pavilion and initial plantings in the
Demonstration Gardens.
15. Lewis Katz Building
Penn
State Law moved into its new home on the University Park campus in
2008. This building is inter-connected to the law school’s Carlisle
campus by an advanced audiovisual telecommunications network that
enables students and faculty at either location to access, on a
real-time interactive basis, classes or programs occurring at the other
location. In this way, the law school operates as a single enterprise,
with a single identity, reputation, and stature.
The
distinguished law faculty include one of the nation’s leading scholars
of corporate mergers and acquisitions, the world’s preeminent expert on
Russian law, leading scholars of commercial arbitration, renowned
scholars of antitrust and law and economics, former law clerks to
United States Supreme Court Justices, a leading scholar of
international banking and finance, the first legal counsel to the
African Union, the legal counsel to the Greek Presidency of the
European Union, and other active and influential teachers and scholars
in a wide range of substantive areas.
Both University Park
and Carlisle facilities include courtrooms, legislative hearing rooms,
auditoriums, libraries, state-of-the-art classrooms, common spaces, and
exterior gathering spaces.
The building is set back about 500
feet from Park Avenue to protect the important groundwater infiltration
that occurs on this site. In addition, the building has a vegetated
green roof.
16. Beaver Stadium
Beaver
Stadium, home of the Nittany Lions, is one of the nation's premier
football venues. An expansion and renovation prior to the 2001 season
added more than 12,000 seats, increasing the stadium's capacity to
107,282 and easing the waiting list for season ticket requests from
Penn State fans.
The second-largest stadium in the nation, the renovation and expansion added rest rooms and concession facilities, new scoreboards with instant-replay capability, and improved handicap access and pedestrian circulation patterns. The most noticeable changes are 60 enclosed skyboxes in a three-level structure above the East stands and an 11,500-seat upper deck in the South end zone.
17. Medlar Field at Lubrano Park
Medlar
Field at Lubrano Park is the latest addition to Penn State’s “athletic
campus” being developed on the northeast edge of campus, along with
Beaver Stadium, the Bryce Jordan Center, and the Multi-sport Indoor
Track Facility. The new ballpark accommodates up to 6,000 spectators.
It is a dual pro/college stadium, shared by Penn State’s baseball team
and the State College Spikes, a minor league club.
Medlar Field was built with green initiatives, which earned it the title of the first stadium, professional or college, certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.
18. Bryce Jordan Center
The
Bryce Jordan Center, located on the campus of the Pennsylvania State
University, is centrally located within the state of Pennsylvania and
is the only entertainment facility of its size in the region.
The 16,000 seat Jordan Center hosts circuses, sports
exhibitions, family shows, commencements, lectures, and Big Ten
Basketball, as well as some of the top-name performers in the music
entertainment industry.
19. Multisport Indoor Facility
Penn
State track teams moved into this facility in 1999. It features six
42-inch lanes with hydraulically banked turns and eight 48-inch sprint
lanes. It also contains locker rooms, a training room, and a strength
training room.
Other Penn State sports teams, such as baseball and softball, use the Multisport Indoor Facility to practice ion the winter.
20. Eastview Terrace
Eastview
Terrace is one of our most sought-after student residence halls. Its
landscape has improved our town-gown edge and has created a dramatic
new gateway to campus.
Each student has a single room with a private bath, and each floor is clustered into houses made up of 8 to 22 student rooms. A study/social space and laundry facilities are located in each house. Students can choose to live in either a single-gender or coed house. Dining services and mail service are available in nearby Redifer Commons.
This visually prominent undergraduate housing holds approximately
800 single bedroom units for juniors and seniors. Eastview Terrace was
designed to emulate the best qualities of the architecture and
landscape of Penn State’s landmark West Halls, including portals in
every building and quads and courtyards at building entrances.
21. Student Health Center
On
an average day, approximately 400 students are served by University
Health Services and the University Counseling and Psychological
Services. Now, the new 63,000-square-foot Student Health Center,
located at a crossroads between student residence halls, the academic
campus, and sports facilities, offers medical, wellness, and counseling
services in one place. Designed to invite students inside and with a
focus on preventive medicine, the facility aims to be a national model
of 21st century health care in a state of the art, supportive, and
caring environment.
This building includes a new outdoor gathering space between the new Student Health Center and the Career Services Center. In addition, this new LEED certified building has a vegetated green roof.
22. Millennium Science Complex
This
new 275,600 square-foot building will bring together two highly
technical research programs…the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
and the Materials Research Institute. This new building will promote
interdisciplinary collaboration within and between these institutes.
The new Millennium Science Complex will be located on the corner of Bigler and Pollock Roads, adjacent to the Gateway to the Sciences. Green roofs will reduce stormwater run-off, while enhancing energy efficiency, and prolonging the life of the roofs. These features align with the university’s environmental initiatives, and will help the building achieve LEED certification.
The most-sensitive scientific spaces and equipment will be located underground. These spaces will be strictly controlled for vibration, acoustical and electronic noise, temperature, and humidity.
This new building will facilitate research on ecology and evolution,
smart prosthetics and new medical treatments with faculty from the
Hershey Medical Center, research on nano-materials and surfaces, and
cutting-edge research on flexible, bendable, and transparent plastic
electronics.
23. Shortlidge Mall
The
“Gateway to the Sciences” and Shortlidge Mall recently won a national
award for excellence in planning and design. This pedestrian-only
landscape has become one of the most popular destinations on campus.
The wide variety of outdoor gathering spaces is surrounded by trees, lighting, and lots of seating areas designed to comfortably accommodate large and small groups.
To commemorate the University’s 150th birthday, the granite seatwall
around the large lawn in the center of the space is engraved with the
colleges at University Park that confer degrees.
24. & 25 Chemistry & Life Sciences Buildings
The
Chemistry – Life Sciences buildings create a “Gateway to the Sciences”
that showcases Penn State’s leadership in scientific research and
education. These facilities house the Huck Institutes of the Life
Sciences, a consortium established in 1995 that brings together life
science researchers in areas such as cellular dynamics, chemical
ecology, and comparative genomics and bioinformatics. The Chemistry
program at Penn State absorbs undergraduates into the community of
science as early as possible. The large size of Penn State’s
research-active faculty means that 80-90% of our undergrads do research
at some time in their four years at Penn State, and many graduate with
one or more publications to their credit. The buildings total 335,000
square feet of new laboratories, auditoriums, offices and classrooms
for these research and teaching programs. They are connected at the
3rd and 4th floors with a glass-enclosed bridge that spans Shortlidge
Road.
The spaces that were developed between these buildings fulfill
a fundamental goal in campus planning here at Penn State: to create a
more pedestrian-friendly campus and reduce traffic congestion.
Shortlidge Mall is the new pedestrian-only civic space that has become
one of the most popular destinations on campus.
The “Gateway to
the Sciences” and Shortlidge Mall won a national Society for College
and University Planning / American Institute of Architects award for
excellence in planning and excellence design.
26. HUB / Robeson Cultural Center
The
HUB-Robeson Cultural Center is located in the center of the University
Park Campus and provides various student meeting spaces and services.
It was originally built in 1955 and has had multiple renovations and
expansions to better serve the Penn State student population.
HUB Plaza, which functions as an extension of the HUB itself, is
always packed with students. Its central location, fountain, and
benches have produced one of the most popular and memorable outdoor
gathering spaces on campus.
