Architect selected for GSB complex

Rafael Vinoly Architects PC, New York, has been selected to design the University’s new Graduate School of Business campus, which will be built directly across from Frank Lloyd Wright’s landmark Frederick C. Robie House. Faculty and students will use the new campus for classes, study and activities, and the facility also will house administrative offices.

“Rafael Vinoly is known for his responsiveness to the surrounding environment while refusing to imitate a particular architectural style,” said Robert Hamada, the Edward Eagle Brown Distinguished Service Professor and Dean of the GSB.

“In addition to creating high-quality designs, he also is well-known for using an interactive design process, openly sharing information and responsibility, and building consensus. These are some of the elements the University’s selection committee was looking for in a design architect,” Hamada said.

In a 1989 international design competition for Japan’s Tokyo International Forum, Vinoly’s work was selected from among 395 entries. The four-year, $1.5 billion project opened in January 1997 to critical acclaim. He also has designed Boston’s Convention and Exhibition Center, the Philadelphia Regional Performing Arts Center and Princeton University Stadium, Princeton, N.J.

The GSB campus complex––which will have a winter garden and exterior courtyard––is expected to be completed in 2003. Although students and faculty will move from their existing classrooms and offices in Edelstone, Rosenwald, Stuart and Walker halls to the new campus, part-time M.B.A. students will continue to use the downtown Gleacher Center for classes and other programs.

The architect selection committee, which included GSB faculty, students, staff, alumni board members and University Trustees, as well as non-GSB faculty members and officers, chose Vinoly Architects from six competing firms. The semifinalists were Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC, New York; Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects LLP, New York; Perkins & Will, Chicago; Porphyrios Associates, London; and Rafael Moneo Arquitecto, Madrid, Spain.

A $175 million capital campaign being launched this month by the GSB will provide funding for the new complex. Dennis Keller (M.B.A., ’68), chairman and chief executive officer of DeVry Inc. and co-founder of Keller Graduate School of Management, and Andrew Alper (A.B., ’80, M.B.A., ’81), chief operating officer of the investment banking division of Goldman, Sachs & Co., and his wife, Sharon Sadow Alper (A.B., ’80, J.D., ’84), are among the first major donors to the fund-raising campaign. Keller pledged a $25 million gift, and Alper and his wife pledged a $5 million gift.

“Rafael Vinoly is one of the very best architects in the world,” Keller said. “We are indeed fortunate that he will design the new home for Chicago GSB, because it is sure to be both inspiring and highly functional.”

Hamada added, “Today’s and tomorrow’s students, faculty and business leaders expect the finest in facilities, technical resources and support. Fortunately, with the foresight and generosity of our alumni, the support of the University, and the enthusiastic participation of our faculty and students, we have an opportunity to ensure that those demands can be met.”