Swarthmore College’s Martin Hall received a Sustainability Award of Merit in ENR’s 2026 East Best Projects. The project reuses and expands the former Martin Biological Laboratory, combining preservation of its 1936 character with new academic and creative media spaces. ENR describes major energy and solar gains as projected or expected outcomes—not verified post-occupancy results.
What the award recognizes
ENR named Martin Hall a Sustainability Award of Merit in its 2026 East Best Projects. The project team credits listed by ENR include IMEG as submitter, Swarthmore College as owner and developer, Goody Clancy as lead design firm, The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. as construction manager at risk, IMEG as MEP engineer, and TYLin as structural engineer. ENR’s award listing describes the work as a low-carbon campus renewal guided by Living Building Challenge Core.
How Martin Hall was transformed
Built in 1936 as the Martin Biological Laboratory, the building became available for a new purpose after Swarthmore’s biology department moved to Maxine Frank Singer Hall. The college renovated and expanded the existing building for interdisciplinary use, including Film and Media Studies, Computer Science, and the Creative Media Commons. It opened for the Fall 2025 semester, according to Swarthmore College Magazine and Green Building United.
Preserving character while updating the building
The project retained the historic Wissahickon schist façade, structure, and Art Deco character rather than replacing the building. Swarthmore also describes salvaged or responsibly sourced materials, restored accessibility, and biophilic interior elements as part of the renovation. Goody Clancy reports that the project reduced the building footprint by 17% even as total floor area increased by 25%. Those are architect-reported project metrics, not independent operating measurements. Goody Clancy’s project page provides the design firm’s account.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
#1 Best Overall
What makes the project sustainable
Reuse and embodied carbon
Retaining the existing structure and façade avoids treating the site as a blank slate. ENR says the project is projected to reduce embodied carbon by nearly 26%; Goody Clancy separately reports a 26% reduction through reuse, envelope design, and finish selections. The figures describe design and project impact, not verified energy performance after occupancy.
All-electric systems and renewable power
Martin Hall is all-electric and connects to Swarthmore’s carbon-free geo-exchange system. ENR says rooftop photovoltaics are expected to provide 35% of annual electricity and that efficient systems are projected to reduce energy use by 85% from baseline. These are expected and projected outcomes as reported by ENR, not established post-occupancy results. ENR’s project description is the source for these figures.
Landscape, runoff, and building data
Native plantings, bioswales, and a stormwater vault are intended to manage runoff and protect the watershed. The project also includes open-source monitoring of energy, occupancy, lighting, and air quality, creating data that can support building operations and serve as a teaching resource.
Is Martin Hall Living Building Challenge Core certified?
The project is described as using Living Building Challenge Core as a framework or pursuing Core certification. The cited project and award pages do not confirm that certification has been achieved. The award itself is confirmed: ENR’s 2026 East Best Projects lists Martin Hall as a Sustainability Award of Merit.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Rank #3
How to interpret the performance figures
The headline energy and solar numbers should be read as design expectations, not measured results. ENR describes the 85% energy-use reduction as projected and the 35% photovoltaic contribution as expected. Likewise, the embodied-carbon figure is a project-impact estimate reported by the architect and ENR. The cited sources do not establish post-occupancy verification for these outcomes.
For meaningful comparisons with other buildings, readers would need consistent accounting boundaries and baselines, measured-versus-modeled energy data, renewable electricity share, retained structure and materials, stormwater performance, accessibility outcomes, and certification status. The available project pages do not provide harmonized comparison data for ranking Martin Hall against unrelated buildings.
Quick Recap
Best Value
Rank #4
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
