Why does no one talk about Penn's campus?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>I rarely hear people talking about the appearance of the campus, which was starting to make me think it was ugly. However, I just looked at loads of pictures, and it looks like one of the most beautiful campuses I've ever seen. So pretty in fact, that it's encouraged me to apply as a transfer.</p>

<p>So is it gorgeous or what? Or are these pictures just putting it in too positive a light?</p>

2

<p>Penn’s campus is very pretty.</p>

<p>There. I said it.</p>

<p>Some people find the lack of light on Locust Walk depressing, but I love how it is surrounded by trees, not to mention the lovely squirrels. I love the areas by the highrises and College Green as well. Pretty much everything is solid besides DRL.</p>

3

<p>whats DRL?</p>

4

<p>David Rittenhouse Laboratories. Hideous building.</p>

<p>Van Pelt and Williams are also hideous, and we have too many locals on campus asking for money and hassling students. It should follow the Columbia model and be more closed off to people who don’t have business there.</p>

5

<p>I disagree. I like how Penn is a part of the community, even if it comes with the listed disadvantages you listed. The opportunities to interact with the community at Penn are endless, which is why it was recently ranked as the #1 Neighbor School (tied with USC). </p>

<p>Besides, most of us are students invading the area from outside West Philly. We are guests, and shouldn’t expect to have free reign away from home, but we should instead strive to become part of the community in which we inhabit.</p>

6

<p>Wait, Penn? Are you sure you’re not talking about the Penn State campus? </p>

<p>Penn is an ugly red. Bulls would run amuck at Penn. 'Nuff said.</p>

7

<p>We are guests in West Philly? Oy. Spare me the rhetoric and stop romanticizing the crime problems: West Philly is a cesspool that needs draining. Penn needs to continue buying up real estate and making West Philly a safe, student-friendly area instead of catering to those who would sooner hand it back to the criminals and locals who have allowed it to deteriorate so rapidly. The idea that we are guests at all is just silly: Real estate belongs to those who have the purchasing power to acquire, develop, and maintain it, not necessarily to those who were there first. Penn students bring money into West Philly and help increase real estate prices. I know we’re all uncomfortable admitting that the locals have allowed West Philly to degrade into a hive of crime, but to wax on about how much we like the vibrant community etc. is just naive. Penn brings jobs (indeed money), safety, and order into West Philly is thus intrinsically valuable to the area and entitled to develop it as it sees fit. </p>

<p>If you like that Penn is part of the community, by all means venture past 40th alone one night and tell me how it feels.</p>

<p>Just my 0.2. (I still love Penn, but am happy that I live in Center City.)</p>

8

<p>West Philly has undergone significant improvements. It’s North Philly I would be worried about right now.</p>

<p>In any case, the campus is not stunningly gorgeous like some other places, but it is pretty, especially during the spring, in my opinion. Locust Walk is nice to look at, and some of the buildings are interesting. DRL is nothing to write home about, and many of the other buildings have ridiculously convoluted floorplans with counterintuitive elevator layouts (McNeil, Skirkanich, Williams, etc). All in all, though, it’s a solid campus.</p>

9

<p>Maybe it’s something about the pictures that make it look so great, but I’ve been salivating over these pictures all day. Just the appearance of the school has practically made it my top choice. </p>

<p>Some examples:
<a href=“http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/UPenn_Castle_blizzard.jpg[/url]”>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/UPenn_Castle_blizzard.jpg&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://i.cnn.net/money/.element/img/1.0/sections/mag/fsb/bestcolleges/2007/galleries/upenn.jpg[/url]”>http://i.cnn.net/money/.element/img/1.0/sections/mag/fsb/bestcolleges/2007/galleries/upenn.jpg&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://sciencemasters.org/images/upenn_photo1.jpg[/url]”>http://sciencemasters.org/images/upenn_photo1.jpg&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/UPenn_Quad.jpg[/url]”>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/UPenn_Quad.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>gorgeous!</p>

<p>But I guess I might be biased, because the current school I’m looking to transfer from has some of the most boring architecture in the history of schools.</p>

10

<p>The core of Penn’s campus is great, especially at the beginning and end of the school year when the trees are full of leaves and the sun actually shines. The biggest problem, though, are the areas alongside streets. They’ve done a great job with Walnut from 36th-38th, but that’s about it. Most of Spruce is awful, especially around 38th. The beauty of the quad is kind of ruined by the hideous, treeless sidewalk in front of it. If you look on Google Maps, there used to be trees in the sidewalk lining the Quad, and you can see the squares where they used to be in person. Why were they removed? It used to look so much better. In an urban area like this, trees do so much. Stouffer/Commons/the parking structure on 38th are just awful, but ot much can be done there short of razing buildings, which is pretty much an impossibility. Mayer’s bad too.
Penn has been making strides this year to repave a lot of ugly asphalt walkways with brick and re-landscape the areas (37th from Locust to Walnut, Woodland Walk in front of Fisher-Hassenfeld) but there’s still a ways to go. The Penn Connects plan is going to do amazing things for the campus (especially Penn Park and the new green replacing the tennis courts in front of the Palestra), but let’s not forget about existing areas that really need work. I might be way too picky here, but I think a breathtaking campus really is important in establishing first impressions, especially for a prestigious school like Penn.</p>

11

<p>I transferred to Penn from the University of Maryland. That campus was stunning. Everyone comments about it. I think it’s probably Maryland’s main selling point. However, I like Penn’s campus better. Everything at Maryland was so perfectly manicured while Penn’s campus has character. It’s very old and historic, and so it’s harder for them to make changes to it. Penn may be not as stunningly beautiful as say, Maryland, but it has a very collegiate look, which is equally if not more beautiful.</p>

12

<p>Penn’s campus is amazing. I did a spur of the moment tour in July and had low expectations. I was completely blown away. It was beautiful. It didn’t even feel like I was in the city. Out of all the schools I visited, including Princeton, Penn had the best campus.</p>

13

<p>Oh yeah. I saw Princeton the day before I saw Penn. And I loved Penn way more. The feel of the campus was much more friendly as well.</p>

14

<p>Well then I’m glad that Penn accepts transfers, while Princeton does not!</p>

15

<p>I’m bumping this thread just to state that I’ve been looking at pictures again, and man the campus is beautiful. I really ought to start writing my essays.</p>

16

<p>I particularly like Locust Walk in the springtime</p>

17

<p>redsoxgirl, UMD is nice in the fact that it’s very clean and neat; there’s plenty of grass and open space. But the buildings all look exactly the same. It’s suburban sprawl college campus-form.</p>

18

<p>In Huntsman Hall is where I spend most of my days…</p>

19

<p>Personally, Penn’s campus is probably the thing I dislike most about the school. There is just so much less grass than I’m used to, and it’s hard to run outside except along the river, which has gotten boring after a while. There are so many people always walking around, including beggars, and even though the food trucks can be delicious, their smells make me a bit depressed, as I start to miss fresh air.</p>

<p>Basically, it’s really not what I had imagined to be a typical college campus. The nice looking buildings are just bunched together, and the campus is too small for my liking.</p>

20

<p>^God, what a whiner. Did you not notice Penn was in a major city when you applied? Maybe you should have gone to Dartmouth.</p>

<p>I loved Penn’s campus. Yes it has plenty of ugly buildings (most of which will probably be gone in another 30 years), but it has some of the most distinctive buildings in the Ivy League–more importantly, its most memorable buildings are not just copies of Oxford/Cambridge Gothic (such as Yale’s campus, the iconic parts of which are less than a century old–in a 350 year old school–and only marginally more authentic than Disney’s Magic Kingdom). Masterpieces like the Furness Library and College Hall are uniquely Philadelphia and uniquely Penn.</p>

<p>The layout is simply brilliant. Locust Walk funnels so much of the student body past each other–giving you more opportunities to see friends and discover new events going on–in a way a more generic large campus quad simply cannot.</p>