Temple University – Paley Hall Renovation Floors 2 and 3

Arora Engineers, Inc. (Arora) was awarded to assist with the renovation of the 2nd and 3rd floor in Temple University’s recently decommissioned Paley Hall library building to provide ten (10) new classrooms and a gender-neutral restroom per floor. Temple University fast-tracked this project which was taken from survey/assessment to permit drawings in two weeks, necessary to allow construction in the short timeframe.

SCOPE OF WORK INCLUDED:

Arora provided Electrical, Fire/Life Safety, and Mechanical and Plumbing engineering design services to support the conversion to temporary classrooms. These spaces will provide added capacity to facilitate teaching and learning with 6’ social distancing separation as the school navigates educating students amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The project area was approximately 96,000 SF total on the 2nd and 3rd floor of Paley and a subsequent 48,000 SF on the ground floor. Renovations included new partitions to create new social distancing classrooms and new single use gender neutral bathrooms. One challenge overcame was modifying the obsolescent 1960’s vintage mechanical and electrical systems to conform to current codes and provide suitable service to the spaces and their occupants.

Upon successful design completion and contractor bidding of the 1st phase (2nd & 3rd floors), Arora was subsequently engaged to similarly assist in renovating the ground floor. Both phases were successfully completed and open to returning students on time for the start of fall classes on August 24, 2020.