On April 1, construction began on a three-story, 74,000-sf expansion of Lehigh University’s College of Business in Bethlehem, Pa. This project was supposed to begin last year but got delayed by the COVID-19 outbreak. The building is scheduled for completion in the Fall of 2022.
Since the Rauch Business Center opened in 1991, the College has seen a 43% increase in enrollment and 38% increase in faculty. New programs and courses of study have been added, including a FinTech minor, interdisciplinary initiatives majors and executive education.
According to Lehigh, the new building—which replaces a parking lot and two admin buildings—is part of Lehigh’s Path to Prominence initiative to add students and scholars, and to spark innovation. The building will sit catty-corner the existing Rauch Business Center. It will accommodate classes in the College of Business’s undergraduate and graduate programs and provide 16 additional teaching spaces, all of which will be equipped to support remote and hybrid learning.
DESIGN INCLUDES NEW OUTDOOR PLAZA
The new building, called the Lehigh University College of Business, will provide space for an expanded Bosland Financial Services Lab, a two-room Data Analytics Lab, and a Rauch Media and Communications Lab to support oral, written and digital communications classes. A behavioral lab will allow for observation and subject interviews, and there will be business innovation/incubator space for entrepreneurial exploration. The new building will also become the home for the Vistex Institute for Executive Learning & Research.
According to the American School & University website, the business incubator will be available for students to develop and pitch startups. It will include a mock trading floor equipped with Bloomberg terminals, a production studio, and a corporate-style conferencing center.
The design also establishes a landscaped pedestrian plaza with an informal gathering space where students can exchange ideas, eat lunch, or relax after class. An atrium with double- and triple-height storefront windows overlooks the plaza, creating interconnections between the building and the campus beyond.
“I think this is really going to help to knit together the College of Business, Rauch Business Center, and Zoellner Arts Center, pulling those into a more coherent campus experience,” says Brent Stringfellow, University Architect and Associate Vice President of Facilities.
A corporate-style conference room is one of the many features of the expansion.
REAL-WORLD EDUCATION
The $38.2 million project is designed by Voith & Mactavish Architects (VMA) to achieve LEED Silver certification. “New findings in pedagogy show that students learn best when they are engaged in discovering solutions for open-ended, real-world problems. With spaces like the business incubator and mock trading floor, we are creating places where professors can inspire students to test, explore, and discover,” says Sennah Loftus, Associate Principal at VMA and lead designer for the project.
BD+C confirmed that the building team includes Quadratus Construction Management (CM), Langan Engineering (CE), Stephen Stimson Associates (landscape architect), Keast & Hood (SE), Bruce E. Brooks & Associates (MEP/FP), Marshall/KMK Acoustics (acoustics/AV/IT), TBS Services (building envelope consultant) Zipf Associates (elevator consultant), Roll Barresi & Associates (signage consultant), and Becker & Frondorf (cost estimator). Lehigh University is the developer and owner.
Future plans call for the existing Rauch Business Center to be expanded and renovated.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Structure Tone, Turner among the nation's busiest reconstruction contractors, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 75 Reconstruction Contractors based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
SSOE, Fluor among nation's largest industrial building design firms
A ranking of the Top 75 Industrial Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Best AEC Firms of 2011/12
Later this year, we will launch Best AEC Firms 2012. We’re looking for firms that create truly positive workplaces for their AEC professionals and support staff. Keep an eye on this page for entry information. +
| Aug 11, 2010
Manitoba Hydro Place, Tornado Tower among world's 'best tall buildings,' according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat last week announced the winners of its annual “Best Tall Building” awards for 2009, recognizing one outstanding tall building from each of four geographical regions: Americas, Asia & Australia, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. This year’s winners are: Manitoba Hydro Place, Winnipeg, Canada; Linked Hybrid, Beijing, China; The Broadgate Tower, London, UK; Tornado Tower, Doha, Qatar.
| Aug 11, 2010
Call for entries: Building enclosure design awards
The Boston Society of Architects and the Boston chapter of the Building Enclosure Council (BEC-Boston) have announced a High Performance Building award that will assess building enclosure innovation through the demonstrated design, construction, and operation of the building enclosure.
| Aug 11, 2010
CampusBrands Inc., NYLO Hotels team to launch student housing franchise brand
Which would you choose: the cramped quarters, thin mattresses, and crowded communal bathrooms of dormitory life or a new type of student housing with comfortable couches, a game room, fitness center, Wi-Fi in every room, flat-screen televisions and maybe even a theater?
| Aug 11, 2010
Perkins Eastman awarded Indian School of Business campus
The New York office of international design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman has been commissioned by the Indian School of Business for a 70-acre, 1.5 million-sf new business school campus as part of a 300-acre “Knowledge City” in Chandigarh, Mohali, India. The sustainable campus will accommodate four centers of excellence: healthcare management, public policy, manufacturing/ operations, and physical infrastructure management.
| Aug 11, 2010
Portland Cement Association offers blast resistant design guide for reinforced concrete structures
Developed for designers and engineers, "Blast Resistant Design Guide for Reinforced Concrete Structures" provides a practical treatment of the design of cast-in-place reinforced concrete structures to resist the effects of blast loads. It explains the principles of blast-resistant design, and how to determine the kind and degree of resistance a structure needs as well as how to specify the required materials and details.
| Aug 11, 2010
Harvard Law School Wood-Framed Houses
Cambridge, Mass.
A century ago, majestic Victorian homes lined Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, but few of these grande dames still survive. Harvard Law School owned three such beauties, which they used for office and research space. Unfortunately, the houses occupied prime real estate on which the school planned to build a new academic center. Rather than raze the historic wood-frame homes, the law school made it a priority to repurpose them.
