Three planned healthcare projects receive $10 million each. They are: the $1-billion expansion of clinical care and medical research capacity at Children's Hospital; construction of a two-million-sf Center for Advanced Medicine and associated research facilities in the University of Pennsylvania's Riverview Project; and expansion of Fox Chase Cancer Center, which calls for construction of a 300,000-sf research pavilion along with the modernization of existing facilities.

Cultural institutions take a generous share of the funding. A planned 35,000-sf Calder Museum on two acres next to Franklin Institute receives $15 million. Another $5 million goes toward restoration of Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park as the new home of the Please Touch Museum. Checks for $5 million each also go toward construction of the National Museum of American Jewish History, a permanent home for the Philadelphia Theatre Co., and construction of a new museum adjacent Independence National Historic Park at 5th and Market streets. Another $6 million in RACP funds are devoted to completion of exterior spaces along Independence Mall, which connects the new Constitution and Liberty Bell centers.

Neighborhood projects are not overlooked. The Girard Avenue Streetscape Project, El Centro de Oro business and cultural arts district, a Mount Airy retail-residential development along Germantown Ave., and a retail-entertainment center at 1600 North Broad St. and Cecil B. Moore Avenue in North Philadelphia each get seven-figure RACP checks.

Checks for $3.5 million and $2 million, respectively, were awarded to development of the Schuylkill riverfront and renovations of a professional development center at the Penn-assisted Pre-K-through-eight public school in West Philadelphia, which is supported by the U. of Penn's graduate school of education.

Construction of a soundstage production facility at the Naval Business Center receives $750,000. The city's current soundstage facility, located at the Philadelphia Civic Center, is slated for demolition as the Penn campus expands. Film and television production, according to Rendell, added $106 million to the city's economy last year while, in many cases, also providing positive promotion.