After years of planning, Purdue breaks ground on Daniels School of Business building
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After years of planning, Purdue University officials moved the first bits of dirt at the site of the new Mitch Daniels School of Business building during a groundbreaking ceremony Friday afternoon.
The 164,000-square-foot building will become the second-largest classroom facility on the West Lafayette campus and is expected to cost around $170 million.
“The building is student focused, so the whole concept was that we’ll provide more space for student services [and] more classroom space, because we don’t have enough right now,” Daniels School Dean James Bullard said. “We’ll also provide some services back to the rest of campus, so there are some really big classrooms that’s helping us in the in the overall plan for campus.”
Bullard told Inside INdiana Business ahead of the groundbreaking that student enrollment has more than doubled over the last few years and some students are traveling across campus to take classes. The new building will connect to two other buildings, including the Krannert Center for Education and Research.
“This year’s freshman class was about 30% larger than last year…I really think that we’re on the move,” Bullard said. “This campus is about 70% STEM students, and we want a STEM-oriented business school here, which will give you a little bit different brand than some of the other leading business schools in the country.”
The new building is slated to open in 2027.
Purdue first detailed plans for the new business school in September 2022, which included doubling the size of the current Krannert Building.
In December, Purdue’s board of trustees approved a restructuring for the school. The university said the move will reorganize the school from two departments to nine and will take effect on July 1.
“We’ll have more conventional departments than what we’ve had in the past,” Bullard said. “I think by organizing by disciplines, we’re going to be more able to be nimble and innovative within those particular disciplines. Those are the teams that know the most about their area, and they can really innovate and push us forward.”
The Mitch Daniels School of Business is also one of four strategic initiatives highlighted within Purdue’s five-year, $4 billion fundraising campaign announced in February.
Purdue said the campaign, which is the largest in the school’s history and its third billion-dollar-plus campaign in less than 25 years, is designed to help grow the school’s endowment.
Purdue also released a video which includes video renderings of the space, which you can view below: