08/29/2019
Hallie Lauer | news editor
Renovations on the sixth floor of Rockwell Hall are nearly finished, just in time for the beginning of the fall semester.
Included in the renovations were complete redesigns of the sixth floor and the sky bridge, as well as the addition of a two-story atrium that removed part of the seventh floor.
The sixth floor now holds three different institutes: The Albert P. Viragh Institute for Ethics in Business, The Investment Strategy Institute and The Institute for Sustainable Business Innovation.
“These institutes will be focal points for both student learning and academic research,” Dean McFarlin, Dean of the Business School said.
Another new addition to the sixth floor is the Business Leader Bistro. This market is now directly off of the sky bridge in Rockwell Hall and takes the place of the former Rockwell Market which was on a lower level in the building.
“Collectively, the sixth floor is now a welcoming, comfortable and high-tech venue where students will want to spend a lot of their time — whether that involves taking classes, working on projects, studying, interacting or just building community and relationships,” McFarlin said.
The renovations of the fourth, fifth and sixth floors all include lounges where students can meet.
The redesign of the sky bridge includes the addition of a climate control system.
The renovations on the sixth floor took place this previous summer, following last year’s renovations on the fourth and fifth floors.
“More than ever, our brand o
f business education focuses on giving students impactful, real-world projects to tackle with the latest technology, both inside and outside the curriculum. Our facilities need to accommodate this increasing focus and that’s the thinking behind our most recent floor redesigns,” McFarlin said. “The days of having endless classrooms with rows of fixed seats are over. Instead, our new spaces are flexible, high tech, and designed to promote project work, ideation, prototyping and using business analytics to make sense out of information and make good decisions.”