Breaking Ground, Breaking Through

A year and a half after it was first announced, the bold and ambitious Path to Prominence plan is already beginning to reshape Lehigh’s campuses—and, in the process, reshape Lehigh’s future as well.

Recent months have seen many important developments regarding Path to Prominence, with progress being made in most every facet of a plan that will see Lehigh invest heavily in its infrastructure, recruit dozens of highly regarded new faculty, grow its research enterprise and significantly expand its undergraduate and graduate student populations. All of these initiatives are being undertaken to build on existing strengths and build a stronger, more impactful university.

Among the most visible new developments will begin to rise this spring at the border of campus and South Bethlehem. There, Lehigh in partnership with Memphis-based EDR Trust, is moving forward on the construction of SouthSide Commons, a new, five-story student living facility that will provide housing for more than 400 students. The building, formally approved by the City of Bethlehem Planning Commission in January, will include a fitness center, study rooms and an outdoor recreation area, and its location near the SouthSide business district will further strengthen ties between the university and South Bethlehem. It is scheduled to open in time for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Several other major infrastructure projects are also moving forward. One of the most notable of these is the planned Health, Science and Technology (HST) Building, which will offer 180,000 square feet of critically important space for teaching, research and collaboration. The building, which will be built on the current site of the Whitaker parking lot at the northeast corner of the Asa Packer campus, will also eventually serve as home to Lehigh’s planned new College of Health. The Lehigh Board of Trustees in early February moved the project to the design phase, and construction could be completed as soon as 2021.

The Board moved two additional projects to design. Lehigh’s plan to renovate to the historic University Center calls for an extensive renovation of the original 1868 structure and the construction of a new addition along the south façade that will expand the building’s size by 30 percent. Meanwhile, directly adjacent to the University Center, the university will build the 750-bed Bridge West Residence Hall on the current site of the Trembley Park Houses. This expansive new residential complex will bring greater vitality to campus and strengthen the connections between residential life on the Hill and Lehigh’s academic core. Construction could be completed on Phase 1 of Bridge West as early as 2020 and on the University Center by 2021.

The building activity has not been limited to the Asa Packer campus, however. In early January, Lehigh moved several academic departments into their new homes in the fully renovated Building C at Mountaintop, an ever-evolving facility that the university believes will become a nexus for entrepreneurship, exploration and discovery. And in March, several administrative departments moved from existing offices along Brodhead Avenue or on the Goodman Campus into the university’s new administration building at Third and New streets in the heart of South Bethlehem.