University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann, PhD, and Alan Kelly, PhD, dean of the university’s School of Veterinary Medicine, have announced a $10-million gift from Vernon and Shirley Hill to the School of Veterinary Medicine.

The gift will be used towards the completion of a new teaching and research center, currently under construction, to be called The Vernon and Shirley Hill Pavilion. The building will open in the fall of 2006 and is the first new Penn Veterinary Medicine building in Philadelphia in 25 years.

Vernon W. Hill, II is the founder and chairman of Commerce Bancorp Inc. Shirley Hill is the founder and president of InterArch, an architecture and design firm in Mt. Laurel, N.J. Mr. Hill is a 1967 graduate of the Wharton School.

The Hill Pavilion will be the new academic center of the Penn School of Veterinary Medicine. It will contain five floors, including surgery centers, teaching and library space, research laboratories, and a vivarium. Penn representatives say it will be the most state-of-the-art veterinary teaching and research facility in the world