Penn State Intercom......April 19 , 2001

Alumni get new home

Hintz Center festivities
slated for this weekend

The Hintz Family Alumni Center, the Alumni Association's new center for alumni on the University Park campus, will hold its dedication and open house over Blue-White weekend, April 21 and 22. The dedication will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 21, and the open house will follow from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, April 22. The events are open to the public.

The opening of the Hintz Family Alumni Center marks the first time that alumni will have an official residence on campus. The first-floor public space will be open to alumni to use for meetings, networking and socializing while visiting on campus. Alumni Association offices occupy the second and third floors.

The center's location in central campus is a symbol of the integral role that the University gives to its alumni and the association. The $9.5 million project has been completely subsidized by private funds. The center is named to honor alumni and donors Ed and Helen Hintz, and their family.

The dedication will feature brief remarks from Diane Ryan, executive director of the Alumni Association; President Graham B. Spanier; Cynthia Baldwin, chair elect, Board of Trustees; Edward Hintz, alumnus and major donor; and James Carnes, president of the Alumni Association. A special appearance by Evan Pugh impersonator Jerome Pasto will conclude the ceremony.

Pugh, the first president of Penn State, designed and helped to build University House, which has been incorporated into the new center design. It served as the president's residence from 1864-1970. Alumni Swirl ice cream, the new ice cream flavor concocted by the Penn State Creamery in commemoration of the historic center opening, will be served for the first time on Saturday, and again at the open house. Self-guided tours of the center will be available on Sunday.

Purdy O'Gwynn Barnhart Architects Inc. of Philadelphia strived to create a center that looks and feels like a home. Tom Purdy and Linda O'Gwynn, Penn State graduates, brought their inside knowledge of the University and its history to bear on the center's architecture and furnishings.

The architects aligned the Alumni Center on the axis on which legendary architect Charles Klauder designed the campus expansion of the 1920s and '30s. Verses of the alma mater are chronicled above each of the three center fireplaces and on the stone floor of the entry. These unique features, in addition to a two-story, floor-to-ceiling window framing the Old Main tower, are symbolic reminders of alumni's nostalgic college days.

For more information, check out the Alumni Association Web site at http://www.alumni.psu.edu/. A live Webcast of the dedication will be viewable at http://www.alumni.psu.edu/alumni_center/.

The mission of the Penn State Alumni Association is to connect alumni to the University and to each other, to provide valued service to members and to support the University's mission of teaching, research and service. Founded in 1870, the Penn State Alumni Association is the largest dues-paying alumni association in the country, with 145,000 members.

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