Swarthmore College Martin Hall

Philadelphia, PA

Klover SEPA, Inc is proud to be part of the 44,000 square foot, four-story, renovation project for Swarthmore College with Whiting-Turner. Swarthmore College was founded in 1864 by the Quakers. The college is situated eleven miles from Philadelphia in Swarthmore, PA on a 425-acre arboretum campus featuring rolling lawns, a creek, wooded hills and hiking trails. The Martin Hall renovation was designed to preserve and restore the building’s historical front and side facades (built in 1936) and replace the back wing of the building with an addition that offers views of the natural landscape of the Crum Woods. This required removal of a steep embankment to bring the renovated building down to the same level as the entrance to the adjacent Lang Music Building and Lang Performing Arts Building. The renovated back of the building was slightly smaller than the demolished space which provided for a much larger outdoor art plaza space making for an enhanced flow of traffic and a bright and airy feeling. The project connects Martin Hall to Swarthmore’s new geoexchange system through the “To Zero by Thirty-Five” plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035. While the project is not LEED certified, it is pursuing LBC (Living Building Challenge) certification which is arguably more intensive. This renovated building will house the university’s Film & Media Studies and Computer Science departments and the Media Center. It includes a film production studio, screening room, editing suites, and computer science classrooms. Lounge seating in public spaces was installed to enhance cross-departmental collaboration.