Alter Hall Joins Temple's $357M Revitalization Plan

PHILADELPHIA-A gift of $15 million from Dennis and Gisela Alter completes funding of Alter Hall, a 200,000-sf building that will anchor Temple University’s Fox School of Business. The $78-million, seven-story building joins eight construction and renovation projects taking place or planned for the Temple campus and its Ambler, PA suburban location over the next few years. The total cost of all projects is estimated at $434.9 million.

Dennis Alter, CEO of Spring House, PA-based Advanta Corp., one of the nation’s largest credit-card issuers, is a Temple graduate and a former English teacher in the Philadelphia public school system. Alter Hall will replace Curtis Hall and allow Fox to consolidate from nine buildings to two. Renowned Princeton, NJ-based architect and designer, Michael Graves, is lead architect, working with Butler, PA-based Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates. Additional funding for Alter Hall includes a $25-million state capital improvement appropriation, $25 million in university bonds, and $13 million raised by Fox School. Ground will break in early 2006.

Two additional construction projects are planned at Temple. The Tyler School of Art, now located in Ambler, will relocate to a $75-million, 255,000-sf building on the main campus. A $150-million medical school building is being designed at the university’s Health Sciences Center here.

A $30-million second-phase renovation of the student center will expand that facility by 86,000 sf. It is scheduled for completion next summer. A $16.3-million, 61,000-sf Entertainment and Community Education Center with street-level retail space was recently completed here to provide community resources. In addition, a $20-million upgrade and renovation of laboratories and research facilities is under way.

Two Temple-sponsored renovation projects are also ongoing. A string of historic townhouses is being restored in an $18.6-million renovation that will convert the buildings into student services facilities. The long-vacant Baptist Temple, originally constructed in 1878 by the congregation of Temple’s founder, Dr. Russell Conwell, is also being restored at a cost of $29 million.

Not least, an $18-million learning center is being designed for Temple’s Ambler campus. It will include computer labs, a visual arts studio, an auditorium and other facilities to support writing, math and science activities.