PHILADELPHIA -- The University of Pennsylvania's historic Quadrangle has received a joint $11.5 million commitment from Penn alumni Alan Hassenfeld and Jerome Fisher and Fisher's wife Anne.

In recognition of the gifts, Woodland College House will be renamed Fisher Hassenfeld College House, and an entrance to the Quad will be named the Fisher Hassenfeld Memorial Tower Gate.

The Fisher-Hassenfeld commitment is the lead gift in the transformation of the Quad into three distinct college houses.

"Alan Hassenfeld and Jerome and Anne Fisher have made a magnificent investment in undergraduate life at Penn," said Judith Rodin, Penn's president. "Generations of students will share our gratitude for their generosity."

Through the four-year Quad Renewal Project, buildings have been reconfigured to create new lobbies, computer labs, fitness rooms, music practice rooms, lounges with kitchens, libraries and seminar rooms.

The architectural features of the historically landmarked Quad buildings have been restored and the systems updated. In addition, the landscape has been enhanced to provide outdoor spaces for each college house and for all Quad residents.

The quality of life engendered by these changes inspired his gift, Jerome Fisher said. In the new common areas, students and faculty see more of each other and have "close bonding experiences" that will lead to lifelong friendships, he said.

Fisher Hassenfeld College House is the oldest part of the Quad and has undergone the most dramatic changes. It had only one public space before renovation; now it has extensive common spaces, a hallmark of the college-house system.

Fisher Hassenfeld Memorial Tower Gate is dedicated to the memory of Pennsylvanians who died in the Spanish-American War. The real and symbolic gateway to the Quad, it is "like walking into a new world