HGA Completes STEM Building at Lehigh University

Design firm HGA recently finished construction on a new STEM-oriented building for Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Penn. The Health | Science | Technology (HST) building is located in the northeast corner of campus and plays home to the university’s new College of Health, according to a press release. It will offer research space for public health, supports chemistry, materials science and biological science, among other subjects.

Lehigh University Health | Science | Technology Building
Photos courtesy of HGA

The five-story building offers amenities like open laboratories that can accommodate increasing and decreasing research groups. Open lab zones include wet programming for Energy & Batteries, Functional Materials & Devices, the BioHealth Initiative, and the College of Health, the news release reports. It also features shared meeting spaces, integrated work spaces, and several open areas designed to foster collaboration across disciplines and among undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff alike.

The building covers 189,000 square feet and offers easily reconfigurable workspaces, including the ability to move tables with overhead gas lines. Faculty offices are clustered together in an open office plan to create loosely defined boundaries while still allowing for collaboration.

Lehigh University Health | Science | Technology Building

Sustainability initiatives include a building sunscreen mounted along the building’s south façade to maximize natural light and visibility while minimizing glare. The building is also targeting a LEED v4 Gold Certification with an emphasis on energy and water efficiency. “The building employs numerous energy conservation measures, including an improved building envelope, chilled beams, natural-temperature supply air design, heat shift chillers, high efficiency condensing boilers, and ample natural light,” according to the news release.

Lehigh University Health | Science | Technology Building

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Utah Valley University Opens New Engineering Building

    Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, recently held a grand-opening ceremony for the new Scott M. Smith Engineering Building, according to a news release. The facility is one of the largest engineering buildings in the state at almost 200,000 square feet, and it plays home to the university’s Smith College of Engineering and Technology (SCET).

  • sapling sprouting from a cracked stone

    Lessons in Resilience: Disaster Recovery in Our Schools

    Facility managers play a pivotal role in how well a school weathers and recovers from a crisis. Whether it's a hurricane, a flood, a tornado, or a man-made event, preparation determines resilience.

  • DLR Group Appoints New K–12 Education Practice Leader

    Integrated design firm DLR Group recently announced that it has named its new global K–12 Education leader, Senior Principal Carmen Wyckoff, AIA, LEED AP, according to a news release. Her teams have members in all 36 of the firm’s offices in the U.S., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Europe, and Asia.

  • Different Starting Points, Same End Goal

    Higher education campuses can enhance student experience by implementing mobile credentials to streamline building access, on-campus payments, and access to other amenities. This enables students to connect to their campuses through the technology they use most: their mobile devices.

Digital Edition