In 1996, the University of Pennsylvania’s sprawling campus in Philadelphia was in the grip of an unprecedented crime wave.
While other universities chose to wall themselves off from their surrounding neighborhoods, Penn’s administrators, led by then-President Judith Rodin, decided that such a strategy wouldn’t work for their 280-acre campus. “The notion back then was, ‘If West Philly goes down, Penn would go down with it,’” says University Architect David Hollenberg, AIA.
So Penn doubled down on its investment in public safety. More important, it launched initiatives that addressed quality of life and security issues as well as housing and economic development in the surrounding West Philadelphia neighborhood.
For more on university security, read BD+C's Special Report: "How security is influencing campus design and construction"
The results have been striking. Crime in the 2.5-square-mile Penn Patrol Zone—which stretches from 30th to 43rd Streets, and from Market to Baltimore Streets—was down 49% from 1997 through 2012, says Maureen Rush, Penn’s Vice President for Public Safety and Superintendent of Penn Police. The last fatal shooting close to campus occurred last April, outside a bar unaffiliated with the university. For eight consecutive years, Security magazine has ranked Penn first among colleges and universities for public safety.
One bonus, says Rush, is that “all this produced community relations that Penn did not have before.” The campus holds monthly town meetings that are regularly attended by 60–70 local residents and business owners.
In a recent interview with BD+C, Rush, Hollenberg, and Michael Dausch, Executive Director of Design and Construction Management for Penn’s Facilities and Real Estate Services department, recounted the steps Penn took to secure its campus.
While other campuses were fencing themselves off from communities to thwart crime, the University of Pennsylvania created a public safety buffer zone beyond its campus into adjacent neighborhoods and formed security alliances with Philadelphia’s police force and other local colleges. Courtesy University of Pennsylvania
In 1996, the university hired 19 new police officers, installed 102 new blue light phones, and integrated its policing strategy with that of the Philadelphia police force. (The Daily Pennsylvanian reports that Penn spent $7 million on these actions alone.) Penn’s 180-building campus now has over 500 emergency phones and 116 sworn officers, according to its 2014 Annual Security and First Safety Report, which covers 2011 to 2013. Its PennComm Communications Center processes over 106,000 calls a year, including Walking Escort requests.
The university beefed up its security presence in 1996 by contracting with Allied Barton Security, which stations officers around the campus. (There are now more than 550 guards on site.) Penn created a buffer zone beyond the campus’s patrolled area, which is supported by safety “ambassadors” who escort students and faculty to their cars and homes. This University City District includes security and communications partnerships with nearby Drexel University and the University of the Sciences.
But policing alone could not be the only answer to Penn’s crime problems, says Rush. Equally critical was the introduction of its West Philadelphia Initiatives, which focused on making surrounding neighborhoods safer and better places in which to live and work.
Those initiatives, says Hollenberg, included mortgage assistance programs for graduate students and faculty; the construction of a K-8 school, which Penn continues to support financially with a per-student donation of about $1,300 a year; and a $140 million investment in commercial development that drew retail stores and groceries to the community.
Penn is still improving its campus security. Rush says the university is in the midst of “Operation Building Safe,” a university-wide communications system that includes “virtual concierges”—a video camera/intercom combination that allows Public Safety to remotely verify the identity of a person seeking entry to a building.
Rush’s department also oversees “Penn Ready,” an emergency preparedness and notification program that includes SMS and email messages, and 29 discrete sirens placed around campus for alerts. The ultimate goal: emergency lockdown capability, via Public Safety control of every door on campus. “We’re moving toward that,” she says.
Related Stories
| Oct 12, 2010
University of Toledo, Memorial Field House
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Memorial Field House, once the lovely Collegiate Gothic (ca. 1933) centerpiece (along with neighboring University Hall) of the University of Toledo campus, took its share of abuse after a new athletic arena made it redundant, in 1976. The ultimate insult occurred when the ROTC used it as a paintball venue.
| Oct 12, 2010
Owen Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Officials at Michigan State University’s East Lansing Campus were concerned that Owen Hall, a mid-20th-century residence facility, was no longer attracting much interest from its target audience, graduate and international students.
| Oct 12, 2010
Cell and Genome Sciences Building, Farmington, Conn.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Administrators at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington didn’t think much of the 1970s building they planned to turn into the school’s Cell and Genome Sciences Building. It’s not that the former toxicology research facility was in such terrible shape, but the 117,800-sf structure had almost no windows and its interior was dark and chopped up.
| Oct 12, 2010
Full Steam Ahead for Sustainable Power Plant
An innovative restoration turns a historic but inoperable coal-burning steam plant into a modern, energy-efficient marvel at Duke University.
| Sep 16, 2010
Green recreation/wellness center targets physical, environmental health
The 151,000-sf recreation and wellness center at California State University’s Sacramento campus, called the WELL (for “wellness, education, leisure, lifestyle”), has a fitness center, café, indoor track, gymnasium, racquetball courts, educational and counseling space, the largest rock climbing wall in the CSU system.
| Sep 13, 2010
Community college police, parking structure targets LEED Platinum
The San Diego Community College District's $1.555 billion construction program continues with groundbreaking for a 6,000-sf police substation and an 828-space, four-story parking structure at San Diego Miramar College.
| Sep 13, 2010
Campus housing fosters community connection
A 600,000-sf complex on the University of Washington's Seattle campus will include four residence halls for 1,650 students and a 100-seat cafe, 8,000-sf grocery store, and conference center with 200-seat auditorium for both student and community use.
| Sep 13, 2010
Richmond living/learning complex targets LEED Silver
The 162,000-sf living/learning complex includes a residence hall with 122 units for 459 students with a study center on the ground level and communal and study spaces on each of the residential levels. The project is targeting LEED Silver.
| Sep 13, 2010
'A Model for the Entire Industry'
How a university and its Building Team forged a relationship with 'the toughest building authority in the country' to bring a replacement hospital in early and under budget.
| Sep 13, 2010
Committed to the Core
How a forward-looking city government, a growth-minded university, a developer with vision, and a determined Building Team are breathing life into downtown Phoenix.