In the early 1950s, Penn had already been years into discussions about a “much-needed campus for women students,” wrote R. Damon Childs for the Pennsylvania Triangle, a student publication, then of the University’s engineering and fine arts schools.

The cover story that Childs’ wrote featured this 1952 image of architectural students in the studio of G. Holmes Perkins, the School of Design’s dean at the time. They are viewing their site plan for a proposed “Campus for Women” near 40th and Walnut streets.

This sort of classwork was typical for Perkins’ students, a planner and an architect, who is known for creating a school that used the city as both laboratory and textbook. (Perkins is credited for reinvigorating the school, attracting the likes of Ian McHarg, Robert Venturi, Romaldo Giurgola, and even Louis Kahn to Penn as faculty members.)

Meant to accommodate about 800 girls, the architecture students decided to group a series of units around various size quadrangles. It was felt that there should be an “informal lounge,” with a kitchenette used for gossiping, games, and snacks, for about every 20 girls. One “formal lounge,” used for television, teas, and receiving guests, would serve about 150 girls. Buildings with more than four floors were ruled out because of the “expense and undesirability of elevators,” wrote Childs. There would be a dormitory control unit to the north, and a student union building to the east.

Their idea was to maintain a “domestic quality in the entire grouping and to avoid overpowering, monumental structures,” while also keeping it within the University’s budget limits.

Though University officials said the design was “workable and practical,” the plan the students came up with never transpired. When an apartment complex project at 33rd and Walnut streets fell through, Hill House was constructed in the vicinity of Bennett Hall (now Fisher-Bennett), where the women’s program was centered.

For more information on this and other historical events at Penn, visit the University Archives website.