Sited on an historic hillside in Philadelphia adjacent to the Morris Arboretum, new construction on the Chestnut Hill College campus involved a plethora of challenges. The project involved the removal of the existing antiquated science building between the Fournier Building and St. Joseph’s Hall and replacing it with what has become the Barbara D’Iorio Martino Hall, a new Gymnasium and smart classrooms building more architecturally compatible with the historic detailing of the surrounding campus. 

Van Cleef embarked upon a design journey that dealt with competing interests for master planned locations for new buildings, site slopes in excess of 30%, underground tunnels connecting old buildings and existing campus landscaping that included many specimen trees.  Once the new building site had been selected, efforts dealt with the historic campus structures and centuries of underground utility construction that was not documented. These efforts included research through the campus archives for historic maps, field evaluation of surface clues and in-situ soils excavation in order to map and validate alternatives available for solutions.  Van Cleef found unique designs that rose to the challenges and gained the approval of the many review entities of the City of Philadelphia. Its efforts resulted in the approval of the first underground stormwater management system in the City of Philadelphia. Van Cleef’s responsibilities included site surveying and underground utility mapping, design and permitting, public hearing presentation, construction documents, bidding, construction surveying, project management and construction observation.