Since 2000, Swarthmore resident Lawrence Katz has been a guitarist for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, a group you most likely know for songs they recorded before Katz joined them, such as 1992’s “Where Did You Go?” or 1993’s “Someday I Suppose.” The band’s sound is sometimes punk overlaid with ska horns, sometimes straighter ska but with rock-and-roll guitar solos. This is a story of his musical journey, including how he found Swarthmore.
Although the award ceremony is put off until September, the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia recently announced its Preservation Achievement Award winners, which include the renovation of the “Lazaretto” in nearby Tinicum. Bill and Carol Menke, of Ogden Avenue, were landscape architects for the project. Bill notes that this was one of the last projects they undertook before closing their business, Menke & Menke, LLC, after a nearly 35-year run.
The new building, a 158,000-square-foot home for Swarthmore’s biology, engineering, and psychology departments, was first conceived in 2011 as part of an institutional strategic plan. In December 2012, the college announced a $50 million gift to be used toward the project. This, the largest gift in the school’s history, came from alumnus and philanthropist Eugene Lang ‘38, who died in 2017.
