Lehigh’s ongoing commitment to providing its students with a vibrant and engaging learning environment. “Lehigh is a university that responds to change and evolves,” Helble said. “Our buildings, and how they are used on campus, are as much a part of that evolution as our curricula and programs as we prepare our students to be leaders, innovators and contributors to society.” As an example, a series of cavernous buildings on Lehigh’s Mountaintop Campus has become a center for entrepreneurship and exploration. Having once housed the former Bethlehem Steel’s research facilities, Building C has been transformed into an invention incubator, where students in Creative Inquiry programs work on innovative projects that aim to solve community and global problems, and students in the Department of Art, Architecture and Design ideate and create. In the high bays and ofces are the departments of mechanical engineering, computer science and engineering, and industrial and systems engineering. Lamberton Hall on the Asa Packer Campus initially served as a dining hall and commons when it opened in 1907, and it has alternately housed the Department of Military Science and Department of Music. After undergoing extensive renovations in 2006, the building has become a popular social and programming space for the Lehigh community. know how to navigate the building and don’t necessarily feel like they have ownership.” Shepley Bulfnch, a national architecture, planning and interior design frm, is leading the redesign and renovation. Renovations will begin in November with site work. Though student services ofces have already been temporarily relocated to Christmas-Saucon Hall, most sections of the CUC will remain open throughout the fall 2022 semester for dining and meeting space. Interior renovations will get under way in 2023, with an anticipated opening by fall of 2025. “When you walk into the Clayton University Center now, it’s really unclear why you would want to stay and linger there,” said Janette Blackburn, an architect and principal in charge of the project for Shepley Bulfnch, in addressing the need for the renovation. “What we’re trying to do is create a whole network of destinations that have eating and meeting spaces for socializing and collaborating, and spaces for formal or informal events, so that the building is always alive, no matter the time of day or The historic Chandler-Ullmann year. That means it needs “THE CUC IS THE ONE PLACE Hall, built in 1884 and initially to have spaces that are ON CAMPUS THAT I HOPE the home of the Department of multifunctional.” Chemistry, was renovated in EVERYONE—STUDENTS, Lead designer architect 2019 to include new classrooms, FACULTY AND STAFF—WILL faculty ofces, study rooms and student zones. It now houses the EXPERIENCE TO ENGAGE departments of mathematics and A lounge and game room WITH THE INCREDIBLE will be features of the psychology. Great Room, formerly the RICHNESS THAT IS OUR Asa Packer Room. An Iconic Building LEHIGH COMMUNITY.” As the frst structure built for Lehigh, the CUC—initially known as —JOSEPH J. HELBLE ’82 Packer Hall—housed the president’s ofce, classrooms, a chemical laboratory, a library and chapel, all of which were later relocated on an expanding campus. A gymwas added to the building in 1874. Then, as part of the extensive 1956 renovation, the interior was gutted and a three-story stone addition went up on the building’s south side, facing SouthMountain. The new renovation project aims to restore the CUC as the heart of campus, as it was when the university was frst established more than 150 years ago. “We’ve gotten a lot of student feedback,” said Lehigh project manager JimLaRose ’11G. “We’ve conducted focus groups and surveys, and we know the places students like on campus, like the EWFM (E.W. Fairchild-Martindale Library), the Grind. We’re trying to do something similar at the CUC and really get students to love the building again, to use it to its fullest extent, to serve themand the campus. Students don’t FA L L 2 0 2 2 | 2 7
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