The Triangle

Issue date: 5/2/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Karl Kuchs Drexel University revealed new pyramid lights as a part of its campus beautification.

Drexel University unveiled new pyramid lights last week as a part of its campus beautification efforts, according to James Katsaounis, executive director of communications and marketing for Student Life and Administrative Services.

The three sets of lights, which have been set up on the walkway that runs along the Main Building, the Paul Peck Alumni Center, Disque, Matheson, and Stratton Halls, are colored and equipped with computer-controlled LED fixtures, Katsaounis said.

"…the University may choose to light the sculptures pink for Breast Cancer Awareness or red, white and blue for the Fourth of July," he added.

Since the unveiling, students on campus have expressed mixed feelings about the lights.

"The lights … make that area of campus even more beautiful at night, and I feel safer walking there at night," Samantha Pluy, a freshman nursing major, said.

Dan Steinberg, former Undergraduate Student Government Association president and a senior graphic design major, agreed with Pluy that the lights will add a good image to campus.

"These new sets of lights … bring a very contemporary feel to the area. It will be interesting to see how they reflect the construction plans going forward that are sure to bring a lot of excitement to our campus," Steinberg said.

However, Theodore Speedy, a sophomore majoring in civil engineering, expressed a different point of view.

"I think the general student response will be, why did they have to be ugly, why did we spend the money on them, the usual negativity we always hear," Speedy said.
"For my own part, I am a little negative against them. My largest concern was for the flowers that they uprooted during construction - I would prefer more tulips any day,"

A discussion of what type of new scenery to add outside the Main Building began over two years ago, and the new lights are a follow up to the additional lighting that both Drexel and University of Pennsylvania have added in recent years, according to USGA Student Life Assembly Chair Stacey Rose.

The Department of Planning, Design and Construction is evaluating adding additional lighting, according to Katsaounis.

"The Paul Peck Alumni Center will be the first campus building to have exterior lighting installed. The lighting will be ground up-lighting,"

"The Anthony J. Drexel statue at 32nd and Market streets will also have new up lighting installed to better light the statue at night," Katsaounis said.

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