Purdue trustees approve Daniels School building construction

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — To accommodate student enrollment growth across the university and strategic initiatives in the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, Purdue University trustees on Friday (Dec. 8) gave approval to plan, finance, construct and award construction contracts for an approximately 164,000-square-foot building near the intersection of Mitch Daniels Boulevard and Sheetz Street on the West Lafayette campus.

The facility, which will include new flexible space in support of academic instruction and conferences, will provide modern teaching and research labs for financial trading, data visualization, behavioral research and experiential learning. The building will feature one floor below ground and five above ground, as well as mechanical space on the sixth floor.

To support Purdue’s Classroom Master Plan, the building will feature three large general-purpose, centrally scheduled classrooms — one accommodating 500 students and two accommodating 250 students apiece. 

The building, which will be connected to the Krannert Building immediately to its east, will give the Daniels School three facilities, joining the Krannert Building and Jerry S. Rawls Hall. All are connected, both above and below ground.

The new facility will be the second-largest classroom building on the Purdue campus, behind only the Wilmeth Active Learning Center.

“We’re thrilled with what our design committee and architects have drafted,” said Jim Bullard, the Dr. Samuel R. Allen Dean of the Daniels School. “First, with its striking transparent exterior, the building will draw students, faculty, alumni and visitors to campus inside to see what’s happening.

“More importantly, it is a student-centered building. It will provide learning environments and study spaces at the cutting edge of business school facilities. There will be space for research centers and partnership opportunities with practitioners, as well as student advising areas. Our large classroom spaces will accommodate not only business school students, but those from other schools and units on campus.”

The scope and location of this project aligns with the Daniels School master plan and the 2018 Giant Leaps campus master plan.

Demand has never been higher for a Purdue business education. The Daniels School is expected to enroll 4,000 students in fall 2024, up more than 1,600 students from five years ago. Applications were up 18% this fall from a year ago. The new building has to be large enough to house a burgeoning student population while also creating a collaborative culture.

As part of the project, a portion of the first floor of the adjacent Krannert Building will be renovated. The nearby Krannert Center for Executive Education and Research and the Wesley Foundation facilities will be demolished.

Construction is scheduled to begin in July 2024 and be completed in April 2027. The estimated total project cost of $168 million will be financed by gift funds. Of the total, $125 million will be for the new building and related utility work, while the remaining $43 million will be for the three large classrooms, land acquisition and building demolition, renovations to the Krannert Building, and miscellaneous additional site work. 

• In other action, trustees gave approval to: Plan, finance, construct and award construction contracts for the Burke Boilermaker Aquatic Center mechanical project on the West Lafayette campus. This project will replace five air handling units and condensers with new units served by campus chilled water. Additionally, new chilled water piping, pumps and heat exchangers and temperature controls will be installed, and supporting electrical, mechanical and sprinkler systems will be adjusted. The result will be improved reliability, dehumidification and indoor air quality. Work is scheduled to begin in December 2025 and be completed in April 2027. The estimated cost of $11.75 million will be financed by Auxiliary Funds — Other ($8.15 million) and Auxiliary Funds — Athletics ($3.6 million).

•  Plan, finance, construct and award construction contracts for the music center addition at Purdue Fort Wayne. This project will construct an approximately 26,000-gross-square-foot addition to the existing music center, providing new music rehearsal rooms, recording studios, student editing suites, advanced music technology, a critical listening laboratory, a small classroom and related support spaces. It will allow for expanded student collaboration opportunities, leverage existing specialty music spaces, provide state-of-the-art music technology found at few other universities and consolidate programming into a single, on-campus location. Construction is scheduled to begin in September 2024 and be completed in March 2026. The estimated cost of $22 million will be financed by capital cash appropriation ($15 million) and gift funds ($7 million).

•  Execute a lease for Third and West in West Lafayette. To provide additional student housing capacity on the West Lafayette campus for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 academic years, Purdue will lease 401 apartments (984 beds) from Collegiate Housing Foundation. Third and West is a five-story, 248,000-square-foot housing facility located at 300 N. McCutcheon Drive in West Lafayette, adjacent to campus and on land leased by Purdue Research Foundation. The total two-year lease commitment of $20,619,091 will be financed by Auxiliary Funds — Housing/Dining.

• Execute a lease for a portion of Lux on Capitol in Indianapolis. To provide housing for Purdue University in Indianapolis students for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years, Purdue Research Foundation will master lease 400 beds in 122 apartments from Scion Group, and the lease will be assigned to the university following required approvals. Lux on Capitol is an 11-story, 370,000-square-foot housing facility that includes 672 beds in 196 apartments at 501 N. Capitol Ave., near the Purdue University in Indianapolis campus. The total two-year lease commitment of $9,140,022 will be financed by Auxiliary Funds — Housing/Dining. 

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top 4 in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, with 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 12 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap, including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes, at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.

Sources: Jay Wasson

Rob Wynkoop

Jim Bullard