Xavier's 'most sweeping project in 177 years' breaks ground

Ground was broken on Friday for Xavier University's $115 million Hoff Academic Quadrangle project, which the school bills as "the most sweeping project in the university's 177 years". The centerpieces of the project, located in the area around Dana and Ledgewood avenues, are the new Williams College of Business and the Learning Commons.

The four-story, 88,000-square-foot business college will house both undergraduate and graduate business education programs and will be home to the Center for Entrepreneurship, the Cintas Institute for Business Ethics, and the Center for Investment Research.

In addition to classrooms and offices, the building will include project work rooms, suites for executives in residence, and a multi-media trading room.

"The new Hoff Academic Quad, including the new Business School building, will allow us to continue to attract superb students," says Ali Malekzadeh, dean of the Williams College of Business.  "Today's students would like to see a business school building with a trading room, with an ethics center, and with facilities for entrepreneurships student to manage innovative businesses.  The new building will help do all of that."

The five-story, 84,000-square-foot Learning Commons will be open 24/7 and will house the Information Resource Center, the Center for Teaching Excellence, the Center for Student Excellence, Honors Seminar, the Center for Community Engaged Learning, and the Pedagogical Institute for Jesuit Education.

Offices, classrooms, informal meeting spaces and specialized learning spaces will share space with a 200-seat auditorium.

The McDonald Library, Hailstones Hall, Schott Hall and Alter Hall will also be modernized, and a new, modern Central Utility Plant will be constructed.

Designed by architects Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott of Boston and to be built by Messer Construction, the Hoff Academic Quad will be constructed to LEED Silver certification standards.

The first phase will be completed in the summer of 2010.

Writer: Kevin LeMaster
Source: Ali Malekzadeh, Dean of the Williams College of Business, Xavier University
Renderings provided by Xavier University