Four major building projects that will drastically alter the University Park campus will be up for review at a Penn State Board of Trustees meeting today.

For Eliza Pennypacker, head of Division of Campus Planning and Design, the meeting will be meaningful for another reason — it's her last one.

Pennypacker is stepping down as head of planning and design to spend more time with her husband and her 11-year-old daughter. She said she will continue to work part-time for the university.

A search for her replacement has been narrowed down to five candidates, all from outside the university, said Bill Anderson, Assistant Vice President for Physical Plant.

"She's got some big shoes to fill," Anderson said.

At the meeting, four major projects that Pennypacker oversaw will be up for review. They include:

-- Preliminary sketches of the School of Information Sciences and Technology building, which will wrap around a walkway arching over North Atherton Street, replacing the Pollock Road intersection.

-- Final plans for the Chemistry and Life Sciences buildings, a project as costly as the Beaver Stadium expansion, which will be connected by a walkway over Shortlidge Road.

-- Final plans for the West Campus graduate student apartment complex.

-- A revision to the University Park Campus Master Plan, the general framework for growth on campus, which has been updated to include the new West Campus buildings.

"It's really exciting to present some of our biggest and most eventful projects to the Board on Friday," Pennypacker said earlier this week.

Created last January, the Division of Campus Planning and Design absorbed some of the responsibilities that once fell on the University Architect at a time when campus growth had become a major issue, especially at University Park.

Pennypacker had been the head of the university's Department of Landscape Architecture, but took over the new job when it was created.

While working in the Landscape Architecture department, Pennypacker worked with the University Architect and consultants to assemble the University Park Campus Master Plan, which was completed in 1999.

As one of the most public voices for new design at Penn State, Pennypacker has also endured moments of criticism.

At local government meetings, residents frequently grill her on the new developments, saying the buildings will add too much traffic to State College's streets.

In university presentations, university employees have railed on her for plans that eliminated parking spaces. Some threatened, only half jokingly, to organize a revolt against her office.

Pennypacker and her coworkers patiently listened to the input and drafted many compromises into their plans.

The West Campus parking and traffic plans, for example, underwent many changes throughout the process as a result of public input.

Pennypacker's patient style was evident at a State College Borough Council meeting Tuesday night, where she faced skeptical council members wary of the West Campus housing project.

At one point, Borough Manager Peter Marshall announced a proposal that effectively required Penn State to pay for whatever traffic changes the Borough asked for in the future.

There was a moment of tension.

"They're not smiling out there," said Mayor Bill Welch, trying to disarm the situation.

As the Council looked to Pennypacker to make the next comment, her mouth upturned in a big grin.

"There's a smile," Welch said.

It was a classic Pennypacker moment.

"She's not only raised the bar for design on campus so that we now have a new standard to shoot for, but she's also added a lot of fun to the process," Anderson said.