We are busy working hard with the architects to plan our new UNL College of Business Administration building. What an awesome responsibility this is – planning a facility that reflects our aspirations to be world-class, our commitment to innovative learning and high impact scholarship, and our desire to create a sense of community for all who enter its doors for the next 100 years. We are meeting weekly with the architects – Robert A.M. Stern Architects of New York and Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture of Nebraska. The Robert Stern team has designed more than 20 business schools in the U.S. and around the world, and their tremendous knowledge of designs that enhance cutting edge business education has inspired us all. We are re-thinking how we teach, what we teach in certain size rooms, and how we can create learning spaces that will inspire our students to work hard and our faculty to have high expectations. It is thrilling.
 
This first stage of intensive planning will be completed by June 1, after which the architects will have the information they need to begin designing our space. It will be an iterative process as they develop renderings and models that will begin to help us all envision this incredible new facility. By July 1, we should have some initial renderings that I can begin to share with each of you as we move into the next phase of our fundraising. I visited the office of Robert Stern this month in New York City and saw an entire floor of their facility devoted solely to model building. Robert Stern, Dean of the School of Architecture at Yale, was here last week to celebrate the Sheldon Museum of Art. He knows Nebraska and our campus, as his firm teamed up with Alley Poyner to design the International Quilt Study Center and Museum. He and I shared a wonderful lunch, and I learned a lot about what it’s like to be a dean at Yale while running a large firm.
 
Great things are happening at CBA. Stay tuned. Published: May 15, 2013