Going Up!
By Jaye Berman
Wharton building will set new standard for innovative education
This spring, Wharton will again take a bold step in redefining
21st century business school leadership when it breaks
ground on its new academic facility.
The $120 million state-of-the-art building, scheduled to
open in 2002, will be a place where:
- all Wharton faculty and students — undergraduate, MBA,
doctoral and executive MBA — come together for classes,
study, and co-curricular and extracurricular activities;
- faculty share their latest research and strategic thinking
with scholars and business leaders in a colloquium setting
designed to enhance interdisciplinary exchange;
- students and faculty interact in a variety of formal and
informal settings beyond the classroom;
- and the Wharton community gathers in a 300-seat auditorium
to hear top executives from around the world.
“The building will set a new standard for innovative
teaching and instruction,” says Wharton Dean Thomas P.
Gerrity. “It will incorporate the most advanced networking
and communications technology to create an entirely new
global learning environment.”
Ground-breaking will take place this spring at the site of
the old University Bookstore extending along 38th Street
from Walnut Street to Locust Walk.
In addition to providing much-needed additional class-room
space, the 300,000 square-foot building has been
designed specifically to accommodate Wharton’s curricular
innovations and to further enhance the School’s use of leading-edge
classroom technology.
The new academic center will serve as the unifying locus
for the entire Wharton community. Undergraduate and graduate
instructional spaces will include tiered classrooms, study
areas, an auditorium, computer labs and large lecture rooms.
Student study and social lounges, two cafés and both undergraduate
and graduate student services will offer the student
and faculty community a comprehensive activity center.
The building will serve approximately 4,700 undergraduate
and MBA students, close to 250 standing and associated
faculty and hundreds of senior executives and alumni who
visit campus annually. It will become the main classroom
building, although Steinberg Hall-Dietrich Hall and Vance
Hall will continue to house a majority of the faculty and
administration, as well as a number of classrooms.
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