The hub of athletics activity on Drexel’s University City campus will soon have a new look.
Renovation plans were announced for the two-block stretch of 33rd Street adjacent to the University’s indoor varsity and recreational sports complexes, which will expand its athletics and events space, and bring in US Squash, the national governing body of the sport of squash, as a new tenant and developer of the Pennsylvania Armory.
The comprehensive plan reimagines 33rd Street between Lancaster Avenue and Race Street as a locus of sports for the University community and beyond. Drexel will construct a seasonal, domed athletics facility and continue to work with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to complete restoration of the Pennsylvania Armory throughout the current academic year. US Squash will begin construction of the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in spring 2019.
Funded by the generous support of alumnus and Athletics Hall of Famer Robert Buckley (’58) and trustee Stan Silverman (’69, ’74), the dome on 33rd street, along with a similar structure, installed concurrently at Vidas Athletic Complex on 43rd and Powelton Avenue, will provide Drexel with 44,572 square feet of programming space with sport-specific surfaces, lighting and climate control.