BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Lehigh University on Friday officially unveiled its new Business Innovation Building, the product of years of planning initially delayed by the coronavirus pandemic that Lehigh said will let the College of Business experiment and build.
- Lehigh University hosted an open house of its new Business Innovation Building after years of planning and pandemic-driven delays
- The building features classrooms, faculty space and various specialized wings for new initiatives and research
- Speakers emphasized new technology from recent years, presenting the need to innovate and integrate education with those advances
The 74,000-square-foot building sits at 201 East Packer Ave. across from the Rauch Business Center building on top of what was a parking lot.
The building includes video-ready and technology-equipped classrooms for remote and in-person classes, faculty offices, research laboratories, conference rooms and other student spaces.
In the main concourse, an electronic touch display highlights notable business alumni from the university, as well as the school's history.
Ground was broken on the building in May 2021 following discussions and planning dating to 2015. Officials from the university said much of the building was paid for through philanthropy. Exact cost figures were not released.
Many professors said they are excited to use the new space in classes, with some even preparing to do so this semester.
Many speakers, including Business School Dean Georgette Chapman Phillips and university President Joseph Helble, spoke to the need for innovation as technology continues to advance and education with it.
Finance professor McKay Price, who was chairman of the building committee, revealed near the end of his speech to attendees at the open house that he actually used ChatGPT to develop it, emphasizing the need for keeping up with innovation and finding ways to integrate it with work and education.
"We're gonna have an integration of in-person, human connection, collaborative working, but also incorporating these other tools," Price said, referring to his use of AI in the speech and other innovations in recent years.
"I've been looking forward to [this building] for years, I think the students are going to love these spaces."
Many of its classrooms feature flexible desk arrangements or are rounded, potentially encouraging more discussion among students.
One classroom called an “in the round” classroom arranges students in a full circle, with space in the center for a professor and a circle of rounded screens visible from all seats.
Representatives from Voith and Mactavish Architects, who worked on developing the building, spoke about the heightened amount of technology in each room compared with a typical building.
"We're gonna have an integration of in-person, human connection, collaborative working, but also incorporating these other tools."McKay Price, finance professor
Senior accounting and management major Alexa Riso said what stood out to her in the building versus others on campus is how it encourages collaboration.
"I'm very excited," Riso said. "It's nice to see that this is what the incoming students are going to have. Because it is definitely a different experience than the Rauch Center for Business."
The building's basement floor includes a new behavioral research lab, while other floors include specialized areas such as recording studios, the new Rauch Center for Business Communications, an expanded Bosland Financial Services Lab, the new Lehigh Ventures Lab for startups and Lehigh's executive education program.
"I started in July 2014, and one of my most pressing goals was to transform the Lehigh College of Business into a world-class business school," Dean Chapman Phillips said.
"We have made so much progress over the last nine years, and this Lehigh Business Innovation building is a very important step on that road."
