Nitschmann Middle School

Nitschmann Middle School is a community middle school in West Bethlehem, PA, located near its historical, residential, and recreational areas. CHA has been the trusted Engineer of Record for Bethlehem Area School District since 1991. To develop this Pennsylvania school, we collaborated closely with the Bethlehem Area School District to define the programming needs for the new middle school before the design team was selected. Once on board, CHA played a pivotal role in managing the design process and offering value engineering recommendations to achieve the highest quality within budget.

The project’s complexities were manifold: a constrained urban site surrounded by a highway and residential zones, coupled with the challenge of maintaining the existing school’s operations during construction. CHA helped identify over $3 million in value engineering opportunities and successfully obtained a $2 million grant to offset project costs. Furthermore, CHA oversaw the design and construction of a new synthetic turf field, enhancing the school’s athletic resources.

This top-tier middle school provides West Bethlehem students with high quality educational opportunities.