Penn announces plans for a new residential building at 40th and Walnut streets: New College House West will cost the University a record-breaking $163 million

The University Board of Trustees approved plans on Thursday to build New College House West — a residential building that will cost the University a record-breaking $163 million, Penn President Amy Gutmann said at the board meeting. The new building will be constructed on 40th and Walnut streets, where the high rise field is currently located.

New College House West will begin construction in the spring of 2018 and is expected to open in the fall of 2021, according to a press release.

The budget for the New College House West exceeds the $80.5 million cost of renovating Hill College House, which was completed this past August, and the $125 million cost of building New College House, which was completed in June 2016 and marked the first construction of a college house at Penn in more than 40 years.

Since 2004, Penn has invested $425 million in residential services. The proposed plans for New College House West will bring that number to $588 million.

“New College House West will enable more Penn students to participate in the College House system, and it will also give us the capacity and flexibility to continue renovating existing student housing,” Gutmann said in a statement.

Gutmann said the intended location for New College House West was strategic and will form a “third Quad” for students to spend time in. She said the area enclosed by Locust Walk and Walnut Street near 40th Street “right now is a dead space.”

New College House West will include typical suites with four bedrooms and a small kitchenette. The college house will also include seminar rooms and kitchens for student use and for formal events. Many of the decisions for New College House West are informed by student feedback of Hill and NCH, Gutmann said.
New College House West is designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Architects, a firm which also designed New College House. At 13 stories, New College House West will match the height of The Radian, located across the street.

Photo: Camille Rapay

Source: The Daily Pennsylvanian