Administrators outline projects delayed by downturn

As the economic downturn takes its toll on the University, administrators said they will alter planning for the neighborhood as part of a $300 million reduction in the 10-year capital plan.

“Because we thought that the academic buildings would have more of an effect on the undergraduate experience, we decided to go with the academic building now and delay the satellite,” Burstein explained.

“Postponing saves money,” Burstein said. “It gives us more time to design the project so that it is a more efficient project, and it also gives us more time to fundraise for the project.”

Likewise, postponements could save the University money if construction costs increase by a slower rate than inflation, Burstein explained.

The University will also postpone the construction of an art storage facility at the Forrestal campus. As a result, certain artworks will continue to be stored in the Art Museum on the main campus.

Burstein declined to give a target date for the completion of phase two of the Arts Neighborhood, noting that “it will depend on a host of different criteria.”

He added that the satellite will now be delayed until the second phase, which will include an art gallery, a theater, a dance studio, a cafe, music rehearsal rooms and a 200-seat lecture hall. The centerpiece of the Arts Neighborhood, a 130,000-square-foot arts complex that will comprise three connected buildings facing a fountain, will still be completed in the first phase.

Designed by Steven Holl, many of the buildings in the Arts Neighborhood will have transparent surfaces to encourage passersby to look in on those rehearsing or performing inside. A large basement under the plaza will connect the three buildings, and windows at the bottom of a cycling pool of water will let sunlight into the basement.

Other projects postponed as part of the $300 million decrease in the capital plan include the new neuroscience and psychology buildings. Green Hall, the current home of the psychology department, will not be renovated as originally planned.

“We have decided that we will move the other academic departments into that space without renovation,” Burstein said. “We’re planning on keeping the Green Hall’s lab space in reserve for future use.”

Burstein said that the administration had decided that Frick was more in need of renovation than Green, which was last renovated in 2000. The latter will host a number of social science and humanities departments after the chemistry department, its current inhabitant, moves into the new chemistry building.

“Frick has a series of wetlabs,” he said. “That is not what a department like economics or politics would need.”

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Once constructed, the psychology and neuroscience buildings will occupy the southeast corner of Poe Field and cover a combined area of about 240,000 square feet on a roughly 98-acre site. Across Washington Road, the new chemistry building will cover 250,000 square feet.

The University also announced Monday that some faculty and staff housing projects will be put on hold. Specifically, Burstein said, construction of a set of new apartments near Dean Mathey Court off Faculty Road will be postponed.

Burstein confirmed that the University has “a larger plan to upgrade the quality of grad student housing,” adding that “through that larger plan, we need to move around some of the faculty and staff rental housing.”

The Graduate Student Government has complained in recent years about the quality of graduate student housing.

Some smaller improvements to campus will also have to take a backseat for now, Burstein said. Planned improvements to the landscape and drainage on McCosh Walk, for example, will be delayed.

The decisions to postpone particular projects were finalized by Burstein, President Tilghman and Provost Christopher Eisgruber ’83. Though the Board of Trustees has to approve new projects above $5 million, it does not have to sign off on deferrals, Burstein explained. The three administrators made the deferral decisions and presented them to the trustees this weekend before making a public announcement.

“I think the right balance was struck in those meetings, a balance that is respectful of the larger economy and, in a sense, us,” said Dennis Keller ’63, the vice chair of the Board of Trustees’ executive committee. “A balance that’s respectful but that is very focused on the care of our students.”

Out of the $3.9 billion trustees originally approved for the plan, the University has already spent or “irrevocably committed” $1.47 billion, Cliatt said.

Tilghman said that those involved with those decisions “asked [themselves] a very difficult question: Which [parts of the capital plan] could we defer without threatening the core mission ... of the University?” Administrators did not aim to reach a specific dollar figure in cuts, she added.

“I do think it’s appropriate to do the delay of certain construction projects and other things that enable [the University] to keep thinking about its future and the resources it needs in the future,” Keller added.

— Staff writer Josh Oppenheimer contributed reporting.