Golkin Hall

The Law School Campus

Today, Penn Law's design consists of four interconnected buildings surrounding a lovely central courtyard. The School’s architecture promotes easy interaction among faculty, students and staff, and the School sits within blocks of other world-leading professional and graduate schools on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania.

But until the turn of the 20th century, the Law Department of the University of Pennsylvania (as it was then known) was in a physical sense a rootless institution. The School migrated from one set of cramped quarters to another in the 1880s and 1890s, ranging from the new Philadelphia City Hall, to the Girard Life Insurance Building at Broad and Chestnut, to Independence Hall.

The Law School took up residence on the University’s campus when Silverman Hall (then known simply as the "Law School Building") opened in February 1900, with dignitaries from the worlds of law and education, including Supreme Court Justice John Harlan, in attendance. Silverman Hall, an impressive Georgian-style building by Cope and Stewardson, remains the historical centerpiece of the modern Penn Law campus.

Penn Law's four interconnected buildings include:
Gittis Hall - Houses faculty offices, state-of-the-art classrooms and student lounges. Extensive renovations in 2003 and 2006 added 3,200 square feet to the building.
Golkin Hall - The new building, which will replace the former Pepper Hall, will feature a grand entry hall, faculty offices, a state-of-the-art courtroom, a 350-seat auditorium, and multiple gathering spaces, including a rooftop garden.
Silverman Hall - Houses faculty and administrative offices, classrooms and meeting rooms, the Gittis Center for Clinical Legal Studies, and the Levy Conference Center. Extensive renovations in 1999-2001, 2008 and 2009 modernized the building and restored its historic features. Tanenbaum Hall - Houses Biddle Law Library, classrooms and administrative offices. Renovations in 2007 added new offices and seminar rooms.