The campus of Temple University is in the Cecil B. Moore neighborhood of North Philadelphia. It is about north of Center City and occupies . The campus is intersected by Broad Street, Philadelphia's busiest north–south artery, and loosely bordered by Diamond Street to the north, Oxford Street to the south, 16th Street to the west, and 11th Street to the east. The Philadelphia skyline is visible from campus, particularly on the upper floors of the taller buildings on campus.

In addition to its Main Campus in North Philadelphia, Temple has a Health Sciences Campus north of Main Campus on Broad Street, a Podiatric Medicine Campus in Chinatown, a campus in Center City, and campuses in Ambler and Harrisburg. Temple has international campuses at Temple University, Japan Campus in Setagaya, Tokyo, and at Temple University Rome.

History

The university was founded in 1884 by Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia Pastor Russell Conwell. The church built two buildings on North Broad Street between Montgomery and Norris: a Baptist Temple in 1891, and an academic building (College Hall, now Barrack Hall) in 1893.

As the university expanded, additional buildings were constructed. In the 1960s, Temple University devised a campus expansion plan that would eventually lead to the construction of Paley Library, Gladfelter and Anderson (now Mazur) Halls, Weiss Hall, and Johnson and Hardwick Residence Halls. In order to create space, the university purchased and demolished rowhomes in surrounding neighborhood, displacing residents and causing tension between Temple and the surrounding community. All that remains of several blocks of Park Avenue is a single building incorporating the rowhome's facades (1810 Liacouras Walk) and a small church (Shusterman Hall). By 1979, Temple's campus had grown from its original 4 acres to over 70. Like the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University in University City, the expansion of Temple's campus has come at the cost of the destruction of surrounding neighborhoods and tense relationships with local residents.

In 2014, Temple University unveiled "Visualize Temple," a campus development plan, with signature projects including a new library and quad in the heart of campus. A companion project, Verdant Temple, was announced in 2015 as a university strategy for updating and beautifying the school's open spaces, walkways and landscaping.

Academic buildings Alter Hall

The home of Temple's business school, Alter Hall was completed in 2008 for a cost of $80 million. The 217,000 square-foot, seven-story building was named for Dennis Alter, Temple alum and chairman and CEO of Advanta. Notable features include a three-story atrium, a sky bridge over Liacouras Walk, and a 177-foot elliptical stock ticker, the longest in America at the time. Located at Liacouras Walk and Montgomery Avenue, Alter Hall replaced Curtis Hall, which was built in 1955 and held 50 classrooms.

Annenberg Hall and Tomlinson Theater Annenberg Hall houses the departments of Advertising, Journalism, and Media Studies and Production in the Klein College of Media and Communication. The four-floor structure cost about $7 million to erect in 1968. Annenberg Hall was named for Walter Annenberg and includes film and television production studios, smart classrooms, and Bell Tower Music, Temple's student-run record label. The Joe First Media Center links Annenberg Hall and the Tomlinson Theater and was built in 2002. The center is a communications and social hub for the college and includes a café, a multimedia information center and a venue for displaying student work.

Tomlinson Theater is a 450-seat proscenium theatre with a full orchestra pit. It opened in 1968 and was named for Temple Vice President Emeritus William Tomlinson. Randall Theater is an 80-seat black box theater named for Paul E. "Pop" Randall who staged more than 100 productions during his 38 years as a professor of theater at Temple.

Barton and Beury Halls Barton Hall and Beury Hall were constructed on both sides of 13th Street. The university razed several blocks of mostly-occupied rowhomes in order to clear the space needed for these academic buildings. Barton Hall, which opened in 1959, was the original physical science building. It was replaced by the Science Education and Research Center and demolished in 2015 to make way for Charles Library. Beury Hall still stands, and was built in 1963. In 2009, Beury Hall was renovated for $25 million. Improvements included infrastructure and lab upgrades, and wireless technology in classrooms and lecture halls. The building was named in honor of Charles Ezra Beury, who served as a trustee of Temple from 1913 to 1952 and was the university's second president from 1925 to 1941.

College of Engineering Building The College of Engineering Building is located at 12th and Norris Street and was built in 1975.

The Innovation, Design, Engineering and Applied Science (IDEAS) Hub is an $4.5 million renovation on the second floor of the College of Engineering building. Completed in 2020, the 8,000-square-foot space is outfitted with leading-edge tools including robotics and drone stations, additive manufacturing, and 3D printing labs.

Gladfelter and Mazur Halls

Located over Polett Walk between 11th and 12th Streets, Gladfelter Hall and Mazur Hall (formerly Anderson Hall) opened in 1973 and are home to the College of Liberal Arts. The Grace Baptist Church, Russell Conwell's first church in Philadelphia, was demolished in 1969 to make room for Gladfelter Hall. Standing at 10 stories tall, the two buildings are connected by an elevated courtyard. In 2020, Temple embarked on an expansive renovation of Anderson and Gladfelter's public courtyard, a new glass atrium for Anderson Hall, and the creation of a gateway for the eastern entrance of campus. Originally named for Temple Presidents Millard E. Gladfelter and Paul R. Anderson, Anderson Hall was renamed Mazur Hall in 2021 for Temple alum and co-founder and Chairman of Leonard-Meron Biosciences, Inc., Leonard Mazur and his wife Helena.

Klein Hall

Built in 1973, the Charles Klein Law Building is the main building for the Beasley School of Law. It is located on Broad Street and houses the law library, mock trial practice rooms, and the Duane Morris LLP Moot Court Room, which provides space for moot court competitions, lectures, and meetings. Temple's law library spans the third to eighth floors of Klein Hall and includes seven levels of book stacks.

Science Education and Research Center

Home to seven research centers and institutes, the Science Education and Research Center (SERC) opened in 2014. This 246,700 square-foot, seven-story building contains 52 research labs and 16 teaching labs, and is LEED Gold Certified. Programmed specifically as an interdisciplinary research and teaching facility, 1,900 linear feet of exterior sunshades lower the cost of heating and cooling and keep the sun's heat out of the building's labs. It houses Temple's College of Science and Technology (CST) and is connected to Temple's Engineering Building via a two-story entrance atrium.

Presser Hall and Rock Hall Located on opposite corners of Temple's Main Campus, Presser Hall and Rock Hall are the main buildings for the music departments of the Boyer College of Music and Dance. Presser Hall, on 12th and Norris Street, shares a lobby and cafe with the Tyler School of Art. It houses practice rooms and classrooms, a recording studio, Klein Recital Hall and Arronson Hall, a rehearsal space. The second floor is dedicated to Temple's Jazz Studies program.

Rock Hall, on Broad Street, originally belonged to the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. It comprised two large lecture halls, three classrooms and a gynecological operating room. Now, it houses Rock Hall Auditorium, practice rooms, and the Presser Creative Music Technology Center. The 306-seat Rock Hall Auditorium is the premier recital and performance space for Boyer students. The Presser Creative Music Technology Center is located in the building's basement and is situated underground next to the Broad Street Line, which can be heard from the classroom.

Speakman Hall Located on Liacouras Walk, Speakman Hall is the home of the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management. It was built for $3.3 million in 1966 and served as the School of Business Administration building. A student-run Saxbys Coffee opened in Speakman Hall in 2018 as part of an experiential learning program partnership between Saxbys and the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management.

Tyler School of Art and Architecture Building

In 2009, Temple's Tyler School of Art moved from suburban Elkins Park into a new, 255,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art building at Temple's Main Campus. The building on 12th and Norris Street cost $76.4 million, and integrated Temple's art school among the rest of the university. It includes gallery spaces, classrooms, and a cafe (currently called "The Art of Bread") across four floors. It shares an atrium and the cafe with the Boyer College of Music and Dance's Presser Hall, which occupied that space before the art school moved to Main Campus. Only three years later, the architecture department moved into a new 50,000-square-foot Architecture Building connected to the new Tyler building.

Wachman Hall

With entrances on both Broad Street and Liacouras Walk, Wachman Hall offers 12 floors of classroom space and is home to the College of Science and Technology's Mathematics Department. The building was renovated in 2015 in order to relieve congestion, improve environmental sustainability, and create a more welcoming appearance. Wachman Hall is LEED Gold Certified.

Weiss Hall Located on Cecil B. Moore Avenue, Weiss Hall is home to the College of Liberal Arts' Psychology Department.

Landmarks Founder's Garden and O'Connor Plaza At the heart of campus is Founder's Garden, the burial place of Russell Conwell, founder and 38-year president of Temple University. A graduate of Yale, Civil War captain, Boston lawyer, and Philadelphia minister, Conwell used the income from his famous “Acres of Diamonds” speech to fund Temple as a place where working-class Philadelphians could receive higher education. A bust of Conwell marks his grave in the Founder's Garden.

O'Connor Plaza surrounds the Founder's Garden between Polett Walk and Liacouras Walk. A renovated plaza and Founder's Garden opened in 2017, featuring a large bronze owl statue in commemoration of the university's mascot, the owls; a water wall; and an inlaid Temple T (the university's logo) in the brickwork of the plaza. O'Connor Plaza was named in honor of Board of Trustees Chair Patrick J. O’Connor and his wife, Marie.

O'Connor Plaza replaced Alumni Circle, which was a circular tiered brick wall. A sculpture called "Red Owl" mounted at Alumni Circle was given as a gift to Temple from Bell Atlantic due to the university purchasing an in-house telecommunication system from the company. The Alumni Circle served as a whispering gallery: if you stood in the middle of the circle and whispered, you could hear your echo.

The Bell Tower

A visual icon of Temple University, the Bell Tower was completed in 1966 and sits at tall in the center of Main Campus between Paley Hall (formerly Samuel Paley Library) and Beury Hall. In 2018, the tower's base and concrete plaza was renovated, with the landscaped circular based named Lenfest Circle in honor of longtime trustee H.F Gerry Lenfest. The next year, lights were installed on the tower, illuminating it each evening.

Beury Beach