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Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor will help Penn law school open a new building

Capping a two-year construction project, the University of Pennsylvania Law School plans to open a 40,000-square-foot building with a ceremony on April 5 attended by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

handout image to go with pennlaw28. From April 2-5 the University of Pennsylvania Law School will celebrate the formal opening of Golkin Hall, a state-of-the-art building that completes Penn Law’s magnificent and physically integrated campus and embodies its distinctive vision for an interdisciplinary legal education. The Hon. Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, will participate in the Dedication Convocation on April 5, which includes a conversation on the law with the Law School and wider Penn communities.
handout image to go with pennlaw28. From April 2-5 the University of Pennsylvania Law School will celebrate the formal opening of Golkin Hall, a state-of-the-art building that completes Penn Law’s magnificent and physically integrated campus and embodies its distinctive vision for an interdisciplinary legal education. The Hon. Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, will participate in the Dedication Convocation on April 5, which includes a conversation on the law with the Law School and wider Penn communities.Read more
    by By Chris Mondics, Inquirer Staff Writer
    Published 

Capping a two-year construction project, the University of Pennsylvania Law School plans to open a 40,000-square-foot building with a ceremony on April 5 attended by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

The $33.5 million project includes a 350-seat auditorium and courtroom. The building - named Golkin Hall for its lead donors, Penn graduates Perry Golkin and his wife, Donna - faces Sansom Street on Penn's West Philadelphia campus, and more closely connects the other main buildings at the law school, including Silverman Hall, its 110-year-old Georgian-style building, the university said.

The new structure was designed in accordance with the latest energy-saving technology and building techniques and maximizes the use of natural light.

Its rooftop gardens, which will serve as meeting areas for faculty and students, also will reduce rainwater runoff and the heat-gathering effects of conventional dark roofs.

A two-story lobby faces Sansom Street and leads to a two-story west wing and a three-story east wing.

The project follows other renovations at Penn Law, including refurbishment of classrooms and the Biddle library, new faculty offices, and other facilities, an $18 million project under way for the last several years.

The new building "reflects the expansion in our academic program," said Penn Law dean Michael A. Fitts.

"Over the last decade, we have grown our faculty close to 40 percent, and our programs and classes and courses have expanded more than that," he said. "We had literally run out of space."

Fitts, who attended law school at Yale with Sotomayor, invited her to the official opening and convocation.

The justice's appearance, scheduled for 3:30 p.m. April 5 at the university's Irvine Auditorium, will conclude a weeklong series of events at the law school, including panel discussions examining trends in legal education and other issues facing the law.