Lehigh University - Health | Science | Technology

Advancing Academic Research to Improve Human Health

Prominently located at the northeast corner of the University’s historic Asa Packer campus, the sustainably designed facility provides a modern environment for research into public health, supports chemistry, materials science, and biological science, and is the administrative home of Lehigh’s new College of Health.

The 189,000 GSF building features spacious and open areas that can easily be reconfigured to accommodate future research needs, including movable tables with overhead gas lines that can support nearly any arrangement in the laboratories. Faculty offices within the open office plan are grouped in clusters, loosely defining boundaries between the shared desking zones. The placement of floor openings, with associated communicating stairs and interior gardens, further establishes an identity and distinct sense of place on each level. This dynamic layout provides visual and physical connections between building users within the large open floor plates and neighboring floors.

The building’s five floors provide environments that encourage impactful collaboration between undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty researchers. Flexible, open laboratories accommodate immediate expansion and contraction of research groups with minimal disruption. The open laboratory zones are comprised of wet programming for Energy & Batteries, Functional Materials & Devices, BioHealth Initiative, and the College of Health. These open laboratory zones are all directly adjacent to – and grafted alongside – the computational research labs situated within the building’s office spaces.

Certified LEED v4 Gold by the U.S. Green Building Council, HST is a high-performance laboratory for human health research designed with an emphasis on energy and water efficiency.