PSU trustees approve final Carlisle law school plans

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November 04, 2007 12:00 am  •  By Joseph Cress, Sentinel Reporter 

The Penn State Board of Trustees Friday afternoon approved the final plans for $50 million in renovations and additions to Trickett Hall at Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law Carlisle campus.

The 89-year-old Trickett Hall and the 1985 addition will be retained, according to plans designed by Polshek Partnership Architects and Hargreaves Associates, both of New York City, and Harrisburg’s Office of Planning and Architecture.

Trickett Hall will be renovated to house the H. Laddie Montague, Jr. Law Library, while the 1985 addition will be renovated to house offices. The new Lewis Katz Hall, which will be topped with a green roof, will contain classrooms, a courtroom and auditorium.

An advanced audiovisual telecommunications network will connect the building with the law school’s new facility at University Park, enabling students and faculty at either location to access on a real-time, interactive basis classes or programs at either location.

“In this way, the law school will operate as a single enterprise, with a single identity, reputation, and stature,” said Gary C. Schultz, senior vice president for finance and business/treasurer of the University.

Carlisle Borough Council in September approved the final development plan for the proposed addition.

The plan calls for the construction of a one-story addition connecting a preserved Trickett Hall on South College Street with the boxy 1985 brick addition.

This would require the demolition of 1963 and 1973 additions along with “the curtilage,” a collection of small brick buildings on the north side of the campus on South College Street that today are used as faculty offices.

Demolition could begin by late fall or early winter.

Ground-breaking is expected by January 2008, with an estimated completion date of March 2010.

The new addition will also include seminar rooms, a cafe and common space. It will be relatively modest in size in keeping with the desire to empathize historic Trickett Hall.

The project is being paid for by $15 million in fundraising and $10 million from the University matched by $25 million in state money.