A construction worker died yesterday morning while working on Temple’s new multi-purpose Health Science Center, according to reports by several media outlets.

Medics arrived at 3500 N. Broad Street around 8am yesterday, Dec. 28, for Drew Mecutchen 44, of Levittown, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

He worked for the Berlin Steel construction company, as reported by 6ABC news.

He was taken to adjacent Temple University Hospital and pronounced dead at 8:15am, according to official reports.

There are conflicting stories about the cause of the man’s death from different sources, including an initial police report that said he fell from the 10th to the 4th floor and a fire department report suggesting he fell off scaffolding some 50-feet high. 

The nearly 500,000 gross square foot* building, estimated at a cost of $160 million, is planned to be at least partially operational by August 2009 on Temple’s Health Science Campus, 3 miles north of Main Campus near Venango Street. Though Temple has worked with several nearby community groups during the planning phase, some have questioned the 12-story structure and the potential damage its construction could do to the surrounding neighborhoods, as reported by The Temple News earlier this year.

(*Corrected 12/29/07 6:37 p.m. EST: According to Temple’s Facilities Management, the new building will be roughly 480,000 square feet and fill a footprint of roughly 48,700 square feet. See here.)