From the issue dated June 7, 2002
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The New 'Arms Race' in Business-School BuildingsMammoth, expensive facilities are opening at many universitiesBy KATHERINE S. MANGAN Despite slumping economies, a gloomy job market for new M.B.A.'s, and cuts
At Case Western Reserve University, a twisting, stainless steel and brick structure by the renowned architect Frank O. Gehry, opening in August, has transformed a once-stodgy business school into an eye-popping attraction. The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School is putting the finishing touches on a $120-million high-tech megacomplex that is being described as "the world's most advanced facility for management education." Even in Oregon, where a budget crisis is prompting educators to cinch up their belts, the University of Oregon is replacing its aging business-school facilities with an environmentally sensitive $40-million building -- the largest privately financed structure the university has ever built. "It's like an arms race," says G. Logan Jordan, associate dean for administration at Purdue University's Krannert School of Management. "There are a lot of very good business-school programs, and it can be hard to distinguish among them. Facilities are one tangible way to do that." Purdue had more important reasons to replace its crowded, dated facilities with a new, state-of-the-art building scheduled to open next summer, he hastens to add. M.B.A. enrollment has grown significantly over the past two decades in business schools across the country, and Purdue is no exception. An impressive new building "gives people a reason to come to West Lafayette, Ind." Besides putting a business school on the map, new buildings incorporate high-tech features like wireless networking, videoconferencing capabilities, and multimedia teaching tools. The buildings can also be designed with open spaces and group-study nooks that encourage team learning, one of the hottest trends in business education. "Working in teams on applied projects is an essential part of our curriculum," says Philip Romero, dean of the University of Oregon's Charles H. Lundquist College of Business. "But we can't do that in a third-world building with desks bolted to the floor," he adds, referring to the early-20th century building that currently houses many of the school's business classrooms. Relying on Big Donors Pennsylvania's Wharton School is one of the best-known and wealthiest business schools in the country, but officials there weren't satisfied with their facilities. "We feel that we have the best faculty and the best curriculum," says David Schmittlein, associate dean of the Wharton School. "But over time, unless you have the best facilities to enable the faculty and students to do their best work, you're going to be operating with a hand tied behind your back." The new Jon M. Huntsman Hall, scheduled to open in August, will have high-speed networking and videoconferencing capabilities throughout the 320,000-square-foot complex. Students will have access to 366 computers, compared with the current 176, and they'll have 57 group-study rooms with the latest high-tech features, like electronic whiteboards and computers with wireless keyboards. So how do business schools come up with the money to pay for these extravagant new showcases? Having alumni with deep pockets helps. For its new building, Wharton received $40-million in cash from Jon M. Huntsman, a Utah billionaire and Wharton alumnus who owns the largest privately held chemical company in the United States. At the time, it was the biggest single gift ever made to a business school. "All schools would love to have new, state-of-the-art buildings, but they can't necessarily afford them," says Robert Chandler, principal architect at Goody, Clancy & Associates, a Boston-based architecture firm that helped design the Purdue building. "Business schools, because their alumni are often very wealthy, are able to raise huge amounts of money relatively quickly." A history professor working across campus in a drafty, cramped office might look askance at the relative luxury the new buildings afford. But since most of the new business buildings are financed by the schools' own graduates, and aren't being constructed from the university's general funds, they rarely become major sources of controversy. It takes more than a first-class building, however, to transform a second-class business school. With so many expensive new buildings under construction, that alone won't set a school apart. What matters is whether, and how, the building enhances learning. "I've seen exciting business education taking place in a converted 13th-century monastery," says Milton R. Blood, accreditation director for AACSB International: the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. "How the building is used and how it changes the participants' behaviors is the key to the building's worth." Prestige and Allure In fact, many professors outside the business school welcome the prestige and attention an eye-catching new business building brings to the campus, particularly at a time when colleges and universities are having to rely more than ever on gifts from the private sector. The University of Oregon's Lillis Business Complex, which is expected to open in the fall of 2003, is the most ambitious construction project the university has ever undertaken. It did so even though state lawmakers are projecting a revenue shortfall of $870-million in the state's $12.2-billion budget for the 2001-3 biennium. When Oregon's business college announced plans to build the $40-million Lillis complex, the state chipped in $3.5-million. The rest, about 90 percent of the proj-ect's price tag, came from private donations. They were spurred by a $14-million gift from Charles Lillis, the former chairman of MediaOne Group, an international communications company, and his wife, Gwen. Because the business school's existing facilities were so cramped, administrators say they couldn't afford to wait for the state to come up with more money. The existing buildings were built in 1916 and 1921, for 942 students and 42 faculty members. In the 2001-2 academic year, the same buildings served more than 2,500 students and 130 faculty and staff members. As long as they were building a larger, newer facility, they wanted it to be one that would resonate with Oregon's local sensitivities and values. The new building, which is designed to reflect Oregonians' commitment to environmental protection, will feature solar panels, an atrium that will suck cool air in and pump hot air out, and other features that will cut the school's energy consumption by about a third. Risks and Curves While Oregon emphasized the environment, Case Western's Weatherhead School of Management chose a design for its Peter B. Lewis Building that reflects the school's creativity and risk-taking, administrators say. Undulated strips of steel tumble across the building's exterior, while the interior is a riotous array of intersecting curves with nary a straight line to be found. The design didn't initially go over well with some people in a neighboring district. "We're near to some very gracious, historic buildings, and the contrast was rather jarring to them at first," says Mohsen Anvari, dean of the Weatherhead school. But while neighbors were slowly warming to the unorthodox design, it was a big hit on the campus. "The whole culture of the faculty is thinking outside the box and exploring new frontiers," the dean says. "This building symbolizes that mindset." "It's an exciting, interactive environment where students will create knowledge," says Richard J. Boland Jr., a professor of information systems. "We're not a place where people come to get information pumped into their ears." The entire periphery of one oval classroom is covered by whiteboards, allowing students to jump up and write on the board from anywhere in the room. The tiered classroom, with double desks every other row, lets students turn around and create conference tables for group projects. While the building's design was chosen to reflect what's important in Weatherhead's curriculum, the building process in turn inspired some professors to reconsider they way they teach. Faculty members from Weatherhead plan to join forces with their counterparts at the Cleveland Institute of Art to examine the intersection of design and management, and they hope to offer a series of seminars beginning in September. The $33-million Graduate and Executive Education Center at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, scheduled to open next month, is also designed to encourage interaction. Administrative offices will be located on a two-story, arched limestone bridge that crosses a busy street and connects the new building with the old one. Graduate programs will be in the new building, with undergraduates in the older one. Faculty members in the executive-M.B.A. program, which is geared toward working professionals, came up with a way to collaborate quickly; their new desks, as well as their chairs and filing cabinets, will be on wheels. Laptop computers and skylights will allow them to stay mobile. "When they want to have a creative brainstorming session, they simply roll their desks out into the common area and meet in the middle of the room," says Margaret Garrison, a spokeswoman for the Kelley school. Open Space The new generation of business-school buildings has plenty of open space, not only for students from different fields like accounting and entrepreneurship to get together, but for business students to meet with law or engineering students, as well. A building that fosters a sense of community among students can pay off handsomely after they graduate, as Babson College's F.W. Graduate School of Business discovered. After Olin Hall, with its four-story atrium and "hatchery" for fledgling student businesses was finished in 1996 and the first classes to meet in the hall graduated, gifts from new alumni spiked to $127,000 this year, from $11,000 in 1997. Of course, the jump wasn't all because of the new building. The college had also begun an aggressive fund-raising effort. But Babson officials feel it was a factor. "The building changed the culture of the campus and created a true sense of community," says Will Makris, executive director of M.B.A. Alumni Advancement. "Olin Hall isn't just an academic building, but a place for clubs to meet and students to socialize." There are other payoffs, as well. Satisfied alumni are also more likely to return during their careers for executive courses, which are big money makers for many business schools, and they're also more likely to recruit students to their companies. Such arguments have helped sway university officials who may initially balk at the staggering price tags on new buildings, and they've helped persuade donors to keep the contributions flowing. Whether these new buildings will live up to their billing remains to be seen. BUILDING BOOM AT BUSINESS SCHOOLS: A SAMPLER University: Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management Building: Peter B. Lewis Building Features: Designed by Frank O. Gehry, the twisting, turning facade was chosen to reflect the program's emphasis on creativity and risk-taking. Cost: $62-million Size: 149,000 square feet Estimated completion date: August 2002 *** University: University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School Building: Jon M. Huntsman Hall Features: Billed as the world's most advanced academic center for management education, the massive complex will have high-speed networking and videoconferencing in each classroom to allow professors to connect with Wharton's campuses in San Francisco and Fontainebleau, France. Cost: $120-million Size: 320,000 square feet Estimated completion date: August 2002 *** University: University of Oregon's Charles H. Lundquist College of Business Building: Lillis Business Complex Features: Environmentally friendly design includes solar panels, a floor plan that harnesses prevailing breezes, and an "eco-roof" that uses rainwater to grow vegetation. Cost: $40-million Size: 196,500 square feet (construction and renovation) Estimated completion date: Fall 2003 *** University: Purdue University's Krannert School of Management Building: Jerry S. Rawls Hall Features: Interior atrium and 30 "breakout" rooms to encourage teamwork; commons area will have Web kiosks and wireless access to university libraries and the Internet. Cost: $35-million Size: 128,000 square feet Estimated completion date: Summer 2003 *** University: Indiana University's Kelley School of Business Building: Graduate and Executive Education Center Features: Administrative offices will be housed in a two-story limestone bridge that connects the old building, which will be for undergraduate programs, and the new one, for graduate programs. Students will have wireless access in every seat in the building, as well as in the outdoor courtyard. Cost: $33-million Size: 180,000 square feet Estimated completion date: July 2002 http://chronicle.com Section: Money & Management Page: A30
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Copyright © 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education