This map, prepared at or very near the high point of funding for urban
renewal programs in Philadelphia, neatly summarizes all the major redevelopment
initiatives in University City between 1948 and 1965. Bounded by 30th
Street Station and the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad on the east
(right margin), by Spruce Street on the south (bottom margin), 43rd
Street on the west (left margin), and Powelton Avenue on the north (top
margin), the map identifies each phase of Redevelopment Authority's
assistance to the University of Pennsylvania in its post-World War II
expansion.
The first elements of Penn's expansion were new buildings for the Wharton
School (Dietrich Hall, now joined with Steinberg Hall) and the Physics
Department (the David Rittenhouse Laboratory), completed in 1952 and
1954, respectively. In 1962, Penn completed the new Annenberg School
of Communication, a redevelopment project it had initiated in 1959.
Penn and its neighbor, the Drexel Institute of Technology (now Drexel
University), developed the land in University City Units 1a, 1b, and
2-the so-called Project "A"-in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Penn completed and opened the Women's Residence Hall (now Hill House)
on Unit 2 in 1960 and the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of
Matter on Unit 1a in 1964. Then in 1965, the City and Penn partnered
in their most ambitious projects, Units 3 and 4. Unit 4 provided for
the extension of Locust Walk to 40th Street and the development of "Superblock"
between Spruce and Walnut Streets and 38th and 40th Streets. Unit 3,
the largest of the five areas, became the site of the University City
Science Center, as well as University City High School and an expanded
Presbyterian-University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. Unit 5 was set
aside for the expansion of Drexel's campus.
