Overview
The Chatham University Eden Hall Campus, located in Richland Township, Pennsylvania, is the first university campus in the world to be built as a sustainable campus from the ground up.Home to Chatham’s Falk School of Sustainability, the campus is dedicated to teaching sustainability, revealing natural systems anddeveloping the next generation of environmental stewards. The project honors the legacy of Chatham alum Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring and widely considered the founder of the environmental movement.Mithun designed buildings and infrastructure for the first phase of development to generate more water and energy than it uses, produce food, recycle nutrients, and support habitat and healthy soils. Located in a peri-urban setting near greater Pittsburgh in an area with the greatest water quality challenges of the state, the campus provides an important opportunity to demonstrate sustainable land use practices.
Project Narrative
ADVANCING HEALTHY, SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Buildings, diverse landscapes, site specific art and innovative infrastructure combine to create an immersive environment for research and hands-on learning, modeling and testing strategies for healthy sustainable living. The new net-positive campus positions Chatham as a leader and advances partnerships locally, nationally and internationally.
INSPIRATION AND ENGAGEMENT
Mithun engaged diverse stakeholders – including students, faculty, staff, suppliers and innovators from multiple sectors – to vision and design buildings and landscapes that exemplify and accelerate innovation. Social spaces play a key role with settings for engagement, recreation and community-building.
THE NEW FARM
The “new farm” is an inspiring landscape supporting health and wellness while advancing an important idea – that suburban land can be developed as a net positive resource for urban areas. The campus generates more energy than it uses, is a water resource, produces food and recycles nutrients, and supports habitat and healthy soils while building eco-literacy.
Mithun Receives AIA COTE Top Ten Award for Design of Chatham University Eden Hall Campus
Mithun is honored to announce that it has received an American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Award for the design of Chatham University Eden Hall Campus.
Home of Chatham’s Falk School of Sustainability, Eden Hall Campus is designed to generate more energy than it uses, serve as a water resource, produce food, recycle nutrients, and support habitat and healthy soils while developing the next generation of environmental stewards. Linked buildings, landscapes and infrastructure support an active and experiential research environment. New building forms, outdoor gathering spaces and integrated artwork complement and interpret natural site systems, while making cutting-edge sustainable strategies transparent and explicit.
“Exemplary in its integrated water management and treatment systems, this project is an ambitious vision for a new sustainable campus. The design established aggressive energy thresholds for each of the buildings and integrated sustainable principles into a way of campus life,” noted the 2017 Top Ten Awards jury. “Both the spaces between buildings and the structures are put into service, fulfilling the mission of the curriculum for an education founded on sustainable principles and environmental stewardship.”
This is the sixth AIA COTE Top Ten Award for Mithun, placing it among the forefront of national practices with multiple COTE honors. The Top Ten Awards program, now in its 21st year, is the profession’s most rigorous recognition program for sustainable design excellence. It highlights projects that exemplify the integration of great design and great performance, delivering social, economic and ecological value.
“We are proud to collaborate with such visionary clients as Chatham University, who share our mission of making positive change in people’s lives and the health of our communities and planet,” said Mithun President, David Goldberg. “Chatham’s vision for Eden Hall Campus and the Falk School of Sustainability is an inspiration for us all.”
