The Present

            Drexel University has already taken action to reduce the feeling of crowding at the university through construction projects that have already been completed, but the university is not quite done yet. Construction has already begun on new academic buildings and a new residence hall/shopping center.

            The three projects currently underway are the new Lebow Business Center, the URBN Center, and the Chestnut Street Project. The Lebow Business Center, a 12 story, $92 million project, will be the new home for the business school. It will include 5 levels of classrooms and countless numbers faculty offices, seminar rooms, and group study rooms. The building will also include two lecture halls of 100 and 300 students (Student Life and Administrative Services). The addition of all of the classrooms and group study areas, on top of just having a new, modern looking building on campus, will dilute class sizes and make the campus more appealing visually.

            The URBN Center is the new home for Drexel’s Westphal College of Media Arts and Design. The former Institute of Scientific Information building is being transformed over the next year to house new studios and design labs. Mad Dragon Records, the student run music label on campus, will also be relocating to this location. Like Lebow, this building will be home to many new faculty offices and classrooms (Student Life and Administrative Services). Moving CoMAD from Nesbitt to the URBN Center not only gives it a new home. The move to the URBN Center also expands the space that CoMAD has to work with and gives students in the college a new home that they can call their own.

            The Chestnut Street Project will bring retail, restaurants, and, most importantly, housing to the campus. “The building design will also include a 19-story residential tower at the corner of Chestnut and 32nd streets…The development includes a 14,800-square-foot community center with space for residence life operations and student amenities that include a social lounge with gaming area, a fitness center furnished with modern workout equipment, meeting space, a theater and laundry facilities” (Student Life and Administrative Services). The apartments solve the immediate housing problems on campus, and the community center solves non-housing related overcrowding problems.