Lehigh University, Campus Master Plan

Making the Future: A Plan for the Lehigh Campus was shaped through 18 months of robust, inclusive, and interactive engagement with the campus community. It provides a framework to advance Lehigh’s strategic goals while remaining flexible and responsive to emerging opportunities. In a shifting higher education landscape, the plan emphasizes fiscal responsibility, revealing hidden and underutilized assets and creatively reimagining existing resources.

With Lehigh’s recent designation as a Carnegie R1 research university, the plan supports strategic growth in interdisciplinary research with improved and renovated facilities and connected research neighborhoods, fostering collaboration to address key societal challenges, and building on longstanding partnerships with the South Bethlehem community.

Creating new connections and access to Lehigh’s expansive resources with multi-model pathways, bike routes, and transit networks unlocks the potential for all parts of the campus to become better utilized, fostering unique pathways of discovery across all that Lehigh has to offer.

One of Lehigh’s most exciting resources, the mid-century complex was formerly an advanced research campus for Bethlehem Steel, now a growing hub for interdisciplinary research, academic programs, and external partnerships. The plan advances a vision for a mixed-use, 24/7 innovation district that will be a catalyst for a new innovation ecosystem in the Lehigh Valley, leveraging and activating Mountaintop’s iconic industrial architecture, bucolic setting, and spectacular views.

The plan has already shaped critical short-term decisions for capital projects, setting in motion the development of new student housing that will enable strategic goals for enrollment, student success, and renovations of existing residence halls, with construction anticipated to start in fall 2026.

The plan leverages Lehigh’s ownership of more than 800 acres of woodlands, previously inaccessible to students or the public, as a new resource for research, experiential learning, recreation, and ecological stewardship. Forest Park will transform a vast underutilized area from a barrier into a natural resource that connects diverse parts of campus and serves the surrounding community.