Michigan State University broke ground today on an ultra-modern, $60 million Business Pavilion that will transform the way students learn and give the Eli Broad College of Business a competitive edge among the nation’s top business schools.
The three-story Business Pavilion will feature flexible classrooms, the latest technology, a glass-walled atrium that affords panoramic views of the Red Cedar River and an expanded career center to serve students, recruiters and corporate partners. The 100,000-square-foot facility, adjacent to the Business College Building and Eppley Center, is expected to be completed in 2019.
“The pavilion is more than just a building. It will become a notable part of our university’s history,” said MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon, who attended a groundbreaking ceremony along with other MSU officials and business faculty, staff, students and alumni. “This will be where Spartans innovate, where our faculty will raise the bar in delivering cutting-edge curricula and where our culture of entrepreneurial spirit will continue to grow in the years to come.”
Sanjay Gupta, the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Dean of the Broad College, said the project has been years in the making and will be unlike any seen in the 73-year history of the business school.
“The pavilion will demonstrate our position as a top-of-mind leader in business higher education and enhance the student experience,” Gupta said. “Similar to our students, faculty, and staff, this space exemplifies excellence, pride, connectedness and impact. Our groundbreaking ceremony represents a celebration of the future of our college: both as a business school and as a community.”
The pavilion is designed to give business students for generations to come the resources and spaces to thrive with the college’s evolving business curriculum. Among the features:
- Innovative “special places” that build the college community and enhance the student experience, including an entrepreneurship lab, a shared graduate and undergraduate career-management center and the open-air atrium to bring students, faculty, alumni and employers together.
- A focus on collaboration and teamwork through dedicated team rooms, flexible classrooms that can be customized for multiple uses, student lounges retrofitted for engagement and a team-leadership lab.
- Modern facilities to position the college at the forefront of technology, connectivity, sustainability and energy efficiency.
“My hope for the next generation of Broad scholars,” said Kari Jurewicz, an MSU master’s student in accounting, “is to have a place to learn that reflects what draws us all to Broad in the first place: a sense of community and a place where we can be challenged and thrive.”
The pavilion, completely funded by donors, is $32 million into the fundraising process. It is one of the largest capital projects in MSU’s Empower Extraordinary campaign.
“Today we celebrate a tremendous milestone in our Empower Extraordinary campaign as we break ground on the business pavilion,” Simon said. “This pavilion shows how our campaign is making a difference at MSU, yet reminds us that there is still work to be done.”
