Sprawling over 400-acres in Richland near Pittsburgh, the new Eden Hall will be the second residential college campus in the North Hills of Pittsburgh and the first university in Northern Allegheny County. Chatham has hired Andropogon and BNIM to develop the campus master plan and the architecture firm Mithun for building design.
The campus will be developed in multiple phases. The initial development phase involves construction of residential spaces, field labs, classrooms, a café, an amphitheatre, a mosaic garden, and campus infrastructure. This phase is expected to complete by fall 2013. A dining hall and two 150-bed residence halls will also be built which will be completed by 2015.
The new campus of the university will accommodate 1,000 students. Eden Hall will be designed as a carbon and water resources neutral, and zero-net energy integrated facility and will feature high performance green buildings and the latest in sustainable land, energy, and water management techniques. The sustainable practices in the facility will include protection of valuable watersheds, incorporation of surrounding land and agricultural resources, and rehabilitation of the existing farm structures alongside developing new, green buildings.
Eden Hall will be home to Chatham’s School of Sustainability and the Environment (SSE). The scheme is being funded by means of philanthropic grants, which include a donation of $7.5 million by Richard King Mellon Foundation. The university has raised about $28.6 million towards the scheme.
