Founder's Hall | Girard College

The 2019 – 2024 revitalization project at Founder’s Hall saw the creation of a new first floor conference center for over 300 seated guests with a state-of-the-art catering kitchen, air conditioning on the first and second floors of the building, dozens of reinforced cores through the brick vault floors for new MEP routing, extensive acoustical treatment, accessibility upgrades (including brass ramps and an exterior chair lift to an equipment bridge), new glass vestibules, and extensive restoration of historic finishes and murals.

The Exhibit and President’s Rooms were previously separated by a massive plaster-covered brick masonry wall with two door openings. To increase the visual and physical connectivity between the two rooms, a new 34 ft wide tripart opening in the wall was created.

To create the opening in the 3 ft thick wall, each side of the wall was carefully notched to receive the flanges of 27” deep wide flange beams. The beams were tied together with through-bolts and the assembly was grouted solid. In a careful sequence, the wall below was removed in strips to sequentially install four pairs of columns to support the beams above. As the wall under the new W27 beams was removed, sections of steel channel were installed between the beams to tie the beams together and create a ‘saddle’ that supports the 65 ft of solid wall above. The steel columns that support these beams spread the loads into thick reinforced concrete grillages that transfer the weight above into the granite foundation walls below.

The newly opened conference and event center brings back to life a central gem on Girard College’s campus, and enables this noteworthy building to be better utilized for the modern needs of the College.