Muhlenberg College – Muhlenberg, Pennsylvania (2025)
The John A. W. Haas College Center serves as the administrative heart and chief architectural landmark of Muhlenberg College. Erected in 1929, the historic structure originally served as the university’s main library before undergoing an expansive interior adaptive reuse project. The building is a premier example of Gothic Revival architecture, characterized by its limestone masonry, pointed window groupings, and symmetrical decorative details. Dominated by a central dome-capped cupola, the structure features the prominent David A. Miller Bell Tower. Named in 1982 to honor a notable 1894 alumnus, it houses four clock faces and a digital carillon bell system. The tower bells chime daily. At noon, they traditionally broadcast the collegiate tune “Gaudeamus Igitur,” while playing the college’s official Alma Mater during the evening.
The church on campus is of masonry construction with a Gothic vault and stained glass window tracery beneath it. The eight-pointed foils are set in the top of each grouping of windows.
East Hall is the oldest student residence building on the Muhlenberg College campus. Originally known as Berks Hall, its foundation stone was placed in October 1903, and it officially opened for campus residents in January 1905. The hall was constructed following the traditional English Collegiate Gothic style, deliberately mirroring the classic look of historical Oxford and Cambridge campus quadrangles. The central facade features symmetrical brick towers topped with pointed black minarets, flanking a grand arched pedestrian entrance gateway that leads through an inner arcade to a courtyard. The exterior is finished with traditional dark red brickwork highlighted by contrastive light limestone quoins framing the corners, windows, and roof lines. While preserving its century-old historic exterior framework, the building underwent a massive interior design overhaul and structural expansion overseen by Spillman Farmer Architects in 2015.
This one-story house is located centrally on campus. Twelve-over-twelve windows on the ground floor, and an eight-over-eight window on the gable end with sidelights, give this building a simple yet elevated presence.
The J. Conrad and Hazel J. Seegers Union, specifically showcasing the wing that houses the Ilene and Robert Wood Dining Commons on the Muhlenberg College campus. A massive wall of grid-style, double-height arched windows floods the interior main dining hall with natural light. The exterior uses a classic Pennsylvania brick layout with prominent stone lintels along the roofline, blending traditional regional craft with contemporary expansion design.
The Center for the Arts has a striking curtain wall with rectangular grid and a two roof planes oversailing it to create the shape of a protected gable end.
“Victor’s Lament,” is a prominent 28-foot-tall public sculpture located on the central campus green of Muhlenberg College. It consists entirely of interconnected structural industrial steel I-beams. The top configuration includes a weighted, movable mobile element designed to rotate dynamically with strong winds. Multiple high-tension structural steel guywires run from the upper beams to the base pieces. These cables stabilize the core framework while allowing the topmost elements to safely pivot. The intersecting beams are bound together using heavy-duty, bolt-fastened structural steel plates. The entire 18,000-pound framework balances its massive structural load across three distinct ground-level anchor points embedded in the lawn.