University City

In 1999 Penn, under President Judith Rodin, completed the 14-story Biomedical Research Building II/III (or simply BRB II/III), which houses Ronald G. Perelman School of Medicine departments and centers for biological research. Standing on former PGH property at the western end of Osler Circle, BRB II/III is connected to the Medical School’s Stellar-Chance Laboratories by a bridge over Curie Avenue.

In 1989, the University of Pennsylvania, a PGH Development Corporation member, completed the Medical School’s Clinical Research Building on the west side of Osler Circle, with pedestrian access from the University campus and Curie Avenue. 

This image shows the spatial relationship of the former PGH site to the Colket Translational Research Building, on CHOP’s Raymond G. Perelman Campus, near the south end of Civic Center Boulevard, which beginning at the Brueger Center for Advanced Pediatric Care also bears Perelman’s name.

Constructed on former Civic Center land, CHOP’s eight-acre Raymond G. Perelman Campus, which honors Perelman’s donation of $50 million, includes two major buildings and a landscaped venue and walkway between the buildings, which have complementary functions. The campus is located just south of CHOP’s main hospital. This photo shows the Buerger Center for Advanced Pediatric Care, funded by Perelman. This 12-story facility provides state-of-the-art outpatient care for children and conducts clinical trials. Located on former Civic Center land just south of the Buerger Center is the Ruth and Tristram Colket, Jr. Translational Research Building, named for the building’s donors. At this state-of-the-art pediatric research building, research discoveries are “translated into new drugs, techniques and therapeutic approaches” that are applied at the Buerger Center as well at children’s healthcare facilities worldwide.

An internationally renowned institution, CHOP treats children suffering from various life-threatening illnesses and developmental disabilities. Completed in 1979, the main hospital, shown in this contemporary photo, was spectacularly renovated in the first decade of the Millennium and belongs to the healthcare complex that CHOP has built on both sides of Civic Center Boulevard since the 1990s.

Children’s Seashore House, shown behind PGH’s remnant wrought-iron fence, moved to the site from New Jersey in 1990 and was purchased by CHOP in 1998. Seashore House treats children, both in-patients and out-patients, with developmental disabilities and chronic diseases.

Demonstrators march from PGH (background) to City Hall. In 1976, protestors representing sundry organizations and interests demonstrated, to no avail, against Mayor Frank Rizzo’s decision to close PGH. The public hospital closed in 1977, after 133 years of operation in West Philadelphia. 

This photo from 1970, taken on the PGH grounds (foreground), shows the relationship of the public hospital to Convention Hall, which formed part of the Civic Center. Exhibition Hall (not in the photo), also part of the Civic Center, stood south of Convention Hall, opposite PGH on Civic Center Boulevard. At this point, PGH was seven years from the date of its closing. 

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia opened a single hospital building on property located between PGH and HUP in 1974, three years prior to PGH’s closing. Following the closure in 1977, CHOP, a member institution of the PGH Development Corporation, expanded into the former PGH site with buildings that include the Wood Center for Pediatrics on the north side of Osler Circle. 

This aerial photo was taken four years before PGH’s closure.