The final beam for the expanded Pearson-McGonigle project received special treatment on Friday afternoon – the signatures of Temple’s biggest basketball fans. Temple trustees, administrators, coaches, players and fans lined up prior to a men’s and women’s basketball doubleheader for their chance to put their mark on the beam that symbolizes improvements being made to the North Broad Street facility.

Temple President Ann Weaver Hart noted that when the construction is completed next fall, Pearson-McGonigle will not only be a story higher with expanded basketball practice space, its new atrium will be a more open and inviting part of the Temple main campus.

“The new front atrium is no longer going to be concrete brutalism,” the president told those at the signing ceremony, held in the Liacouras Center’s Fox-Gittis room. “It will be a wonderful atrium with retail opportunities, that we hope will further enliven Broad Street for everyone who drives by and hears that beckoning call, ‘Come to Temple. Come to Temple.’ ”

That invitation will be open to everyone, not just athletes, noted women’s basketball coach Tonya Cardoza: “The renovation of Pearson and McGonigle Halls will provide all Temple students with the kind of opportunities to be strong in body and spirit, just as our classrooms and professors prepare them to be strong in mind.”