Just add cash

摘要

Stand next to the bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin on the University of Pennsylvania's College Green at midday and along with the chirps of grey squirrels you will probably hear the squeal of buzz saws. Penn is erecting a new building for its Annenberg Public Policy Centre just off Franklin's grassy quadrangle. Over the next decade the university will also tear up around 50 acres (20 hectares) of land adjacent to its campus, replacing industrial asphalt with sports fields and mixed-use, glass-and-steel high-rises. The university's planners are ambitious, even extending to the construction of a new bridge over the Schuylkill river to connect it all better to downtown Philadelphia.