Posted Nov. 13, 5:25 p.m.
Northwestern will construct the Kellogg School of Management’s new building at the northeast corner of the Evanston campus, the University announced Wednesday.
The Kellogg building, a new home for the school, will be located east of the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion and Aquatics Center.
“I think it’s the right site,” University President Morton O. Schapiro said. “It’s the northern anchor for the campus. If we do the (Bienen School of) Music building on the south anchor then we have bookends of beautiful, architecturally-interesting buildings, both of which do something that too few of our buildings do – look at the lake.”
Senior administrators from Kellogg and NU as well committees within the Board of Trustees were involved in the decision-making process for the building’s location, University spokesman Al Cubbage wrote in an e-mail.
Schapiro said three sites were under consideration, including near the Arts Circle Drive on the southern end of campus.
“The idea was that’s an arts quad now,” he said. “You have (Louis Hall) there and you have the (Block Museum of Art). Putting a business school there – especially an enormous one in the middle of it – struck me as probably not all that appropriate, and the (Board of Trustees) quickly agreed on that.”
Cubbage wrote that fundraising for the new building is underway, and the design and construction of the building will depend on fundraising efforts. Future use of the Donald P. Jacobs Center, Kellogg’s current home, is unknown, Cubbage said.
“Opening up Jacobs – which is a wonderful building – we can have a lot of fun programming that thing,” Schapiro said.
Bryan Law, president of the Kellogg Student Association, said the new location provides a “wonderful opportunity for Kellogg.” But Law added there are concerns with transportation, parking and the longer distance from where Kellogg students live. Many Kellogg students live in the McManus Living-Learning Center, 1725 Orrington Ave.
“On the whole, students are very excited about the idea of a new building as well as the location,” Law said.
Administrators have requested input from students from the start of the process, said Rajus Korde, a second-year board representative of the Kellogg Student Association. He said there has not been “much action” with since the beginning of this school year, but it should be major addition for Kellogg and the broader NU community.
“It hopefully and probably will be a state-of-the-art facility, right up there with the top business schools in the country,” Korde said.[email protected]
