W. P. Carey School breaks ground on new state-of-the-art building

One of the nation’s largest and highest-ranked business schools just broke ground on a new state-of-the-art facility. As part of Arizona State University’s Homecoming festivities, about 300 people attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the new McCord Hall at the W. P. Carey School of Business.

The 129,000-square-foot building will be added to the school’s two existing structures to help ease crowding for the student population that has expanded over the last decade and to provide facilities competitive with other top business schools across the country. The W. P. Carey School already has more than 10,000 students – more than some entire universities. McCord Hall will include more classroom space, technologically advanced team study rooms, a new career center, outdoor assembly areas and world-class conference facilities.

“We may be the only Top 30 business school in the nation that hasn’t built a new building in the past 25 years,” says W. P. Carey School of Business Dean Robert Mittelstaedt. “The new building and renovated existing facilities will help to attract the best and brightest students in a highly competitive business school environment.”

At Saturday’s groundbreaking ceremony, ASU President Michael Crow addressed the crowd about the importance of having a world-class business school on campus. Philanthropist Sharon Dupont McCord also spoke at the event. The new building will be named after her and her late husband Bob McCord.

More than $17 million in gifts and pledges from area companies and families, including the McCords, are helping to fund the new building. Major donors include Avnet, Inc.; ON Semiconductor and DPR Construction. Student leaders have also shown tremendous support for the project. The president of the school’s MBA association, Stephanie Ketcham, spoke at the groundbreaking event, and several students helped out with the symbolic shoveling of the first dirt for the project, which is scheduled for completion in summer 2013.

McCord Hall will be environmentally friendly, with less water and energy use than similar buildings and a solar array on the roof that returns power to the campus grid. The building project is expected to create 480 local construction and engineering/design jobs, as well as a total of about 1,150 jobs through direct and indirect spending.

To learn more about the W. P. Carey School of Business, visit wpcarey.asu.edu. For more information about McCord Hall, visit http://building.wpcarey.asu.edu. Donations to the building campaign can be made at asufoundation.org/wpcbuilding. The W. P. Carey School of Business full-time MBA, evening MBA and undergraduate business programs are all currently ranked Top 30 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.