Looking At The Future Of Lehigh’s Campus In Bethlehem, PA

In spring of 2021, Singleton, Hitch, and Maida Houses finished construction on the side of South Mountain, the latest of many new developments transforming the Lehigh University Campus in Bethlehem, PA. The development consists of three new residential college houses centered around a small park with outdoor seating and garden space. The development adds 720 beds to the campus, providing accommodations for student residences just steps away from the center of the campus. In recent years, Lehigh has embarked on large transformation development, filling in underused locations at the campus as well as expanding its overall footprint.

View of Lehigh’s campus center. Credit: Colin LeStourgeon.

The Lehigh campus features different sections, nooks, and crannies, each with their own unique characteristics. The campus includes an urban format in Bethlehem’s South Side, where spaces like Farmington Square provide ample outdoor areas with a strong retail and restaurant presence. Farther south brings one to the heart of the campus, filled with beautiful old stone buildings showing off some of the best examples of collegiate Gothic architecture. The university also features other unique sections, such as Mountaintop Campus situated at the top of South Mountain and Sayre Park where buildings are constructed into the hills and connected through a system of winding roads and paths.

View of Lehigh’s new residential houses. Credit: Colin LeStourgeon.

The new Singleton, Hitch, and Maida Houses represent a major addition as the buildings are situated so close to the heart of the campus. Replacing a former surface parking lot, the buildings fill in a former dead space on campus adding more student life and green space. The buildings each feature an attractive and modern exterior comprised entirely of gray brick in unique shapes, with angled edges and corners. The space in the middle of the buildings includes a small plaza with outdoor seating as well as garden and grassy space with a large number of freshly planted trees. In comparison to the former parking lot, this project represents a solid and crucial addition of new dorms to the university campus.

Rendering of the future North Cluster. Credit: Sasaki.

More of the same is planned in the future with a planned North Cluster, which will include similarly designed buildings that will continue to better connect the entirety of the campus. The development will feature a large green space that will run all the way to the southern end of the main campus center and be landscaped with grass, trees and garden space. The new buildings will replace a set of student townhomes available for rent which currently do not provide the same quality of land use as the proposed structures.

Rendering of Health, Science and Technology Center. Credit: Lehigh.

More development is happening in the northern portion of the campus as well with construction work topped out on the Health, Science, and Technology building which is expected to open this year. The building will hold 195,000 square feet of space and will help better connect the University into South Bethlehem. The development will feature a modern exterior comprised of tan and gray cladding and featuring large windows. The development will also help improve the university’s street presence, with trees set to be planted along the sidewalk and small outdoor areas.

The University also makes an impact on the surrounding area’s development even when it is not directly involved with each of the projects. Lehigh University continues to  increase the desirability of the area which has seen an explosion of new development in recent years with the construction of many additional housing units, medical space, and office space that add fuel to the Bethlehem South Side’s fire. Lehigh, named after the neighboring River, is situated within the Lehigh Valley, a rapidly growing region that is situated on the northern perimeter of the Philadelphia Metropolitan area.

Currently, Lehigh University enrolls around 7,000 students which drives Lehigh’s large impact on the surrounding community. With its size and its location in a rapidly growing region, the future could bode well for even more transformative development at Lehigh University.

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