News

H2L2 Architects / Planners has completed the schematic design for the Delaware Valley College Life Sciences Building in Doylestown, Pa. The 41,000-sqaure-foot structure will satisfy the College’s increasing demand for teaching and research space; allow for expanded community and business partnerships; and enhance the College’s presence along the Rt. 202 corridor. Ground will be broken in fall 2012 with completion expected in spring 2014.

“As Delaware Valley College moves toward university status in 2014,” said Arthur Glass, Vice President for Finance and Administration at Delaware Valley College, “this signature building will allow for continued academic rigor and fundamentally reinvent our students’ connection with the life sciences.”

Sited at a critical terminus of the historic campus quadrangle, the “front-porch” colonnade of the Life Sciences Building will fit comfortably with the surrounding modern and vintage college buildings. The main level of the new building will include six large, modern classrooms, a globally-connected conference facility, and an atrium lounge for special events and breakout sessions adjacent to a 450-seat auditorium space. The upper level design features laboratories, including a state-of-the-art Geographic Information Systems lab, and additional teaching spaces and offices. Throughout the building, collaborative niches will accommodate informal learning and socializing.

“The Life Sciences Building will be an entirely modern structure, reflecting its time and unique context,” said Douglas Steele, AIA, H2L2’s principal-in-charge of the project.

A two-story wall of glass topped by a clerestory “lantern” will flood the common areas with natural light. The auditorium design features a similarly large “window to the world,” that will be clearly visible from Rt. 202 and a key campus entry. The size and siting of the building will reflect the emphasis that the College places on academics.
“The design employs sustainable systems that are unique to the industry but fairly standard to H2L2’s practice,” according to David Bisbee, AIA, H2L2 project manager. “We’ve included super-insulation techniques, high-performance fenestration, and totally automated mechanical and electrical systems.”

Consultants to design architect H2L2 include Remington Group – program manager; HERA Laboratory Planners – lab designer; Mark Ulrick Engineers – MEP/FP engineer; Gilmore Associates – site/civil engineer; KS Engineering – structural engineer; Metropolitan Technologies – technology consultant. The design / build team includes Kimmel Bogrette Architecture + Site – architect of record; Arris Engineering – MEP engineer; Reuther + Bowen Engineering – structural engineer; IMC Construction – design/build contractor.

Delaware Valley College is an independent, multi-disciplinary college with more than 1000 acres of college land between its properties in Bucks and Montgomery Counties. Founded in 1896, it features individualized attention, small class sizes and an applied as well as theoretical approach to learning. The College offers rich programs in the sciences, as well as a variety of programs in business and the humanities, offering more than 25 undergraduate majors, five master’s programs and a variety of complementary adult education courses.