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Villanova University Plans to Remake Lancaster Avenue

by: iradiotom - Philadelphia, PA
started: 01/27/12 9:06 am | updated: 01/27/12 9:06 am

Villanova University is proposing a $200 million expansion to its campus along Lancaster Avenue that would add more housing and retail to space that is currently parking lots.

The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that early plans call for constructing four, four- to five-story residence halls, a performing arts center, retail space and an 1,800-vehicle parking garage on the main parking lots. The retail space would be oriented toward the students and mean relocating the schoolâ€™s bookstore, a bistro and some other uses on the campus.

The main objective of the development would be more on-campus housing and therefore pull the students who live in nearby neighborhoods back to the main campus, according to information about the project on the schoolâ€™s website. The new residence halls would have 1,160 beds and provide housing for 85 percent of the schoolâ€™s students. The school doesnâ€™t intend to increase its enrollment.

The development would also help ease town-and-gown tensions that have flared up, particularly when partying students get out of hand or when student vehicles clog up neighborhood streets. It would also create a new gateway for the school on U.S. 30 and provide several â€œtraffic calmingâ€ designs that would enhance that area of Lancaster Avenue.

As more students prefer to live on campus, the work will also go a long way in improving a pocket of Route 30. A two-year study of an 11-mile stretch of the corridor starting from its borders in Philadelphia to Old Eagle School Road in Strafford was completed last month by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

The study makes a series of recommendations, priorities, plans and strategies that would build on the existing infrastructure but make it more walkable, less congested and connected by bicycling paths. Essentially, the plan makes it more attractive and user-friendly.

Villanova is in the early stages of the project and in designing its overall concept, but it has detailed the plans on its website. It hired Robert A.M. Stern Architects of New York and Voith & Mactavish Architects of Philadelphia. The school was set to begin presentations to the community and Radnor officials on Jan. 23 but canceled. No new date has been scheduled, according to the township.

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