Moravian and St. Luke's working with J.G. Petrucci Company, Inc. and Cerminara Architects

Bethlehem, Pa., May 27, 2015—As you drive by the bend in Elizabeth Avenue in Bethlehem, you may look at the building located at 1441 Schoenersville Road and think, “What are we going to do with that great big block of a building?” What was once an eyesore will soon be transforming into a modern athletic training educational building, complete with shared space with St. Luke’s University Health Network.

Moravian College has been working with J.G. Petrucci Company, Inc. as the design builder for this project. Petrucci chose Cerminara Architects to work with them on the design of the building and the programming of the interior spaces. Currently, Moravian College is in the process of finalizing the “programming” of the space, says Mark Reed, vice president for finance and administration, but in a few short weeks, the finalized construction plan will be in the hands of the city for permitting, and that big white block will be a construction site.

The mixed use of this building has created the opportunity to work closely and collaboratively with our strategic partner, St. Luke’s. “Having representatives from the College, St. Luke’s, J.G. Petrucci and Cerminara Architects all around one table designing and planning the future use of this building has been truly exciting,” said Reed.

St. Luke’s has requested approximately 10,000 square feet of space for primary care sports medicine and physical therapy. This space will be located on the south end of the first floor, where the existing locker rooms, showers and saunas are located. A brand new entry on the east side of the building has been added for the exclusive use of the patients of St. Luke’s seeking physical therapy, check-ups and more.

The new plans for 1441 Schoenersville Rd. will take the building from 26,200 to 44,600 square feet. Petrucci’s team will extend the existing mezzanine, the site of the former check-in area for the fitness club, and make a proper second floor, turning the eight floor-to-ceiling racquetball courts into 16 office spaces and classrooms. Moravian College’s space on the first floor will include academic areas for the athletic training program, including classrooms and lab spaces. The second floor will include community space for students to collaborate and wind down between classes, conference areas and office spaces. A portion of the second floor will remain unfinished in “shell” condition that will be available for future growth in this building.

“The goal was to create an aesthetically pleasing building, while maintain as much of the original character of the existing space,” said Reed. “Given the existing structure, it was not possible to match the architectural elements of our existing buildings, and the Petrucci and Cerminara team has done an excellent job of transforming an otherwise innocuous looking building into an attractive, yet very functional destination.”

St. Luke's will begin their out-patient practice in December of this year, says Reed, and Athletic Training students—a brand new, 5-year bachelor's and master's program—can begin their studies in the new building for the Fall 2016 semester.

This is a perfect example of a strategic alliance that takes more than 44,000 square feet of space and brings under one roof the academic curriculum with a real world application of what is taught," said Reed. “Our athletic training students may have a want or need to see something going on in practice. Or, we might say to the patients that come in for therapy, ‘Can we take this into the rehab room so our students can do some observation?’ This collaborative use of the space is what makes this project so unique and exciting."

Moravian College is a private coeducational liberal arts college, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For over 270 years, the Moravian College degree has been based on a liberal arts curriculum where literature, history, cultural values and global issues, ethics, and aesthetic expression and the social sciences are infused with multidisciplinary perspectives. Visit www.moravian.edu to learn more about how the Moravian College liberal arts curriculum prepares its students for life-long success.