The new Campus Master Plan includes major renovations of current buildings, creation of new buildings and a green space that will take up a whole city block expanding from Paley up to Tyler School of Art.
The Central Quad will be at the heart of campus, replacing Beury Hall and the Biology-Life Sciences Building. These classrooms will all be moved to the Science Education and Research Center.
Junior Julia Miller is excited for the change “I’m happy that the science class rooms are getting updated so they’re going to be moved into SERC because Beury is really old and I think it’ll be nice to have green space all through campus, like in the middle, where everyone can hang out and study.”
Another student, Jahlil Peterson wishes he was still at school to see the change and said “I think the green space will give it that campus feel and a nice quad would be cool, I’m just upset I won’t be here when it’s done.“
The plan was drafted about two years ago and Associate Vice President for Campus Planning and Design, Margaret Carney, says it developed out of the need for “critical, strategic academic planning.”
She also said, “We saw clearly that we were falling short in terms of being able to provide space that was really up to par with the needs for teaching, for research in particular and for a lot of other support services that we need to provide for faculty and students to do their work.”
Other components of the plan include renovating and updating existing buildings so that Temple is not expanding beyond the Main Campus footprint. With plans for a new library where Barton Hall is now, Paley will turn into an education and welcome center.
Blueprints are also in the works for an interdisciplinary Science Building, an addition to the Engineering building and a new structure which will be home to the College of Public Health.
“Everything we do is kind of on a domino effect, where one thing is needed as a new building and so we are moving people out of a building, tearing it down, renovating it,” said Carney.
Renovations we will see as early as next year, is the construction being done at Wachman Hall.
The Master Plan is only a draft and is subject to change, but if you have an idea on what Campus should like in the next few years, share your idea at Visualize Temple.
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