PHILADELPHIA -- While the world's athletes were assembling in Salt Lake City last winter, a group of city-planning students at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Fine Arts were working on their own Olympic dream of Philadelphia one day hosting the Summer Olympics. They will unveil their ambitious plans at a public forum at 4 p.m., Wednesday, April 24, in the fifth-floor Executive Conference Room of the First Union Building, 123 S. Broad St.

Using the Philadelphia Sports Congress of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau as a "client," Penn's student planners have spent months researching the issues facing prospective Olympic host cities: transportation, housing for athletes, media support, communications and hotel rooms for guests, to name a few.

Among their advisors have been Alexander Garvin, one of the planners for the proposed New York City Olympics, who is assisting that city with a bid for the 2012 games, and Penn alumnus James Nelson Kise, principal of Kise Straw & Kolodner, who is the instructor for this planning course.

"The students working on this project have done a phenomenal job," said Larry Needle, executive director of the Philadelphia Sports Congress. "This research should prove invaluable to the city and region as we continue to explore the possibilities of a future Philadelphia Olympic bid."