Campus Landscape History and Overview

The Penn campus was developed on the open fields of West Philadelphia in the 1870's and has evolved within the city to the present day campus of approximately 300 acres. Within it are refined open lawns, gardens, athletic fields and fringe landscapes making up almost 100 acres of maintained landscapes.

The Landscape Development Plan of 1977, authored by the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Environmental Design, under the guidance of Sir Peter Shepheard, first established the concept of landscape standards for the campus. The first phase in implementing this plan was the College Green renovation, completed in the late 1970's, establishing the new standard for the Penn Landscape. This simple standard, with its classic "English Landscape Style" of lawn and trees, brick and stone paving with granite curbing, ties the campus together as a cohesive whole. Flowers and planting beds occur judiciously at nodal points. A consistent use of standardized site furnishing completes the campus palette.

With the success of this first phase of the Landscape Development Plan, the University committed to its proposal of extending these standards to all subsequent design and construction projects on campus, and established positions within the Facilities Planning Office (now Facilities and Real Estate Services) to manage and oversee all landscape work. The Office of the University Landscape Architect, administratively located within the Office of the University Architect, now acts as custodian of all aspects of the campus landscape to protect the quality, consistency, and integrity of the Penn image.

Over the next 20 years, the standards established in the 1977 Plan were applied to improve landscape spaces throughout the campus. In 1998, the Olin Partnership was commissioned to take a fresh look at the campus and formulate a development plan focused on prioritizing new development parcels, guidelines, campus systems and standards. Much of this work was inspired by the potential for acquisition of the Postal lands, envisioning the impact this addition might have on the campus, and reflecting on lessons learned from past development experience. Building upon the 1977 Plan, to which Laurie Olin was a contributor, the Olin Plan was adopted by the University Trustees in 2001. It dealt with the campus on a precinct basis, establishing detailed design and operational standards.

Most recently, in the 2006 Penn Connects plan, Sasaki Associates focused in detail on the former Postal Lands, one of the major precincts of the Olin Plan, and prioritized its development into a multi-use campus extension with a focus on providing sorely needed open space and recreational improvement.