Created by Sasaki Associates of Watertown, Mass., the plan utilizes the recently purchased "postal properties" located between the university and the Schuylkill Expressway. This currently inaccessible swath of pavement ... at best, an eyesore, and at worst, an appalling waste of space ... will be transformed into a series of multi-use buildings, athletic fields and park spaces built upon a series of platforms. (Space below will be reserved for parking; the plan in total calls for a whopping 5,000 parking spaces in covered facilities.) These new structures, along with other new and existing buildings along the Walnut Street corridor, are to form a "mixed-use node" that will include residential, retail, office and community space along with various university functions.

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While ambitious, Penn's plan is more of a vision for the area than a blueprint for redevelopment. University planners are still working out many details, including size and composition of new facilities, phasing, funding and possible tenants and development partners. As this process will continue over a period of several years, it is too early to tell if the plan will make the campus more a part of the city or simply incorporate more of the city into the campus.

Mark Kocent, principal planner for Penn's Office of Facilities and real estate management, served as project manager. He says that the university would first develop athletic fields on the site of the large parking lot off the Expressway near Walnut Street. While some of these fields would be temporary, the plan would add five new athletic fields and increase the campus open space by 21 percent.

"You're going to see a lot more green in the next two years," Kocent says.

Later, development would grow in scale and complexity with multiple-use buildings constructed on platforms to meet the height of the Walnut Street Bridge. While the interim nature of some of the improvements and the lack of details concerning more permanent development may frustrate some people, Kocent sees the plan as having important public benefits. He maintains that both interim and long-term improvements along Walnut Street would not only serve as a "gateway" to the Penn campus,

but also better connect West Philadelphia with Center City and boost the city's broader economic interests.

While some have hailed it as a riverfront plan, the Expressway makes any sort of engagement with the Schuylkill River all but impossible. But by developing properties to build upon recent residential and commercial growth along both sides, Kocent envisions an "almost seamless corridor of mixed-use development from Rittenhouse Square to 40th Street." Penn would develop some of the buildings in this district and others would require partnerships with outside interests. While the university has not yet identified potential partners, Kocent says Penn is talking to the city's commerce department about potential redevelopment plans.

As for public infrastructure, the complicated development of terraces and platforms, streetscape improvements for both the Walnut Street and South Street corridors and the new pedestrian bridge at Pine Street ... the latter is dubbed a nonessential part of the plan ... would require public monies. But Kocent notes the university would probably "take the lead on a lot of the funding."

The plan will serve a great number of Penn needs and will certainly improve the area along Walnut Street, which at present is little more than a windswept corridor of concrete with fast-moving vehicles. But questions remain about additional public benefits.

New public spaces seem to be geared toward campus recreation and athletics and it is unclear how accessible they will be to community members unaffiliated with the university.

And while the city will benefit from the eventual development along Walnut Street, will there be enough non-university density to create, as the plan states, a "vibrant mixed-use neighborhood"?

It is important to note that large urban universities across the country, including Harvard and MIT in Boston and Cambridge, Columbia in New York and the University of Illinois in Chicago, are pursuing similar expansion plans. Ever-growing competition is pushing institutions of higher education to behave more like growth-oriented businesses feeding upon the areas around them. This is not necessarily a bad thing, particularly when properties such as the postal lands parking lot have languished for so long.

Penn deserves credit for a thoughtful plan and for being up-front and transparent about its intentions. In establishing its vision, now the university can use the plan to establish popular support and raise funds for these improvements, in whatever form they ultimately take. As development progresses, Penn will hopefully continue embracing a strong sense of public benefits and a robust vision of "mixed-use" that maximizes density and involves a broad range of non-university interests.

Daniel Campo, Ph.D., is a Philadelphia-based planning consultant and a lecturer at Temple University's Department of Community and Regional Planning.