Tall & Urban News

When Harrisburg University of Science and Technology first envisioned building a new tower in downtown Harrisburg for the university’s new Health Science Education Center, their plans were for the building to be the tallest in the city. By the time the proposal was finalized, the tower was reduced from 36 stories to 17, with an adjoining hotel and restaurant.

But now, the plan has changed once more, and the new plans for the university’s Health Science Education Center will focus entirely on educational space.

The initial plans called for a 17-story, 386,200-square-foot (36,000-square-meter) building, which would include a 197-room hotel and a ground floor restaurant in addition to 275,000 square feet (26,000 square meters) of academic space for the university’s use. The university had initially planned to partner with hotel management company HHM for the project.

But according to Harrisburg University’s president Eric Darr, when funding for the project stalled, the university decided to forge ahead, without HHM’s proposed assistance.

“Financing intricacies and further review of market demand have led the University and HHM to reconsider including a hotel in the Health Science Education Center,” Darr said in a press release. “While unfortunate that the University will not work on this project together with HHM, they have been a terrific partner throughout the planning and pre-construction phases. And we look forward to working together with them on future projects in Harrisburg.”

The new plan, approved by the Harrisburg Planning Commission on 10 March 2020, will see an 11-floor building with approximately 230,000 square feet (21,000 square meters) of space, located at Third and Chestnut Streets in downtown Harrisburg. The project will cost Harrisburg University a projected US$100 million, and the building is expected to open in January of 2022.

The Health Science Education Center’s educational facilities will remain intact from the initial plan and are still projected to accommodate more than 1,000 new students in nursing and pharmaceutical sciences, training space for technology and media programs, and auditorium and tutoring spaces.

For more on this story, go to The Patriot-News.