Q&A: Business Innovation Hub

Why does Isenberg need a $62M Business Innovation Hub now?

The reasons are both pragmatic and symbolic. Isenberg has rapidly outgrown its current quarters. Since 2007, our undergraduate program alone has grown from 2,650 to 3,500 students. Our increasingly accomplished undergrads and their graduate-level counterparts expect and deserve state-of-the-art classrooms and cutting-edge facilities for career development, research, and community activities. In addition, the new building will prove a source of pride for every Isenberg graduate. 

Just as timely, an iconic building complex underscores Isenberg’s spectacular rise to prominence. That includes our path-breaking ascent in national and international rankings. Examples: Our undergraduate program now ranks first in the Northeast and 11th in the nation among public business schools (Bloomberg BusinessWeek) and our online MBA program ranks first in the nation and third in the world (The Financial Times). Our sites are firmly set, in fact, on continuous improvement and a top-five ranking among the publics. To this end, the Business Innovation Hub will excel as a defining resource.  

How will the Innovation Hub energize career development at Isenberg?

Premium space for career development and its critical agenda of company interviews, internships, and networking is essential to every Isenberg student. Expanded career development facilities will offer 5,000 square feet of interview suites and offices for career advisors. With this dedicated space, Isenberg will expand its growing relationships with employers from Fortune 500 companies, including national name brands like Oracle, Marriott, JP Morgan Chase, Target, IBM, and Amazon.

In addition, Isenberg’s Fortune 500 recruiters include Massachusetts-based employers like State Street, TJX, RSM US, Liberty Mutual, EMC, and Fidelity.  And of accounting’s Big Four firms and many firms just outside their circle enthusiastically recruit our students.

How will the Innovation Hub improve Isenberg’s drawing power with outstanding faculty?

The Hub’s exceptional teaching and research resources will attract the best faculty in the nation.  They will join a rising tide of nationally prominent Isenberg faculty members and increasingly accomplished students in a virtuous spiral of continuous improvement.

What are some of the building’s key specs?

The building will offer 70,000 square feet of additional classrooms, labs, faculty offices, and student-facing spaces, including an expanded career center, advising resources, and a spacious 5,000-square- foot learning commons that will double as a center for major events.  A flexible design for future growth will adapt to accommodate entrepreneur-in-residence programs and experiential learning spaces for Isenberg students.

Who are the Innovation Hub’s architects and why does their vision matter?

The project pairs the Boston architectural firm Goody Clancy with the Bjarke Ingles Group (Big) of New York and Copenhagen. BIG is the design architect; Goody Clancy is the architect of record, programmer, and consulting designer. The project will seamlessly consolidate the Innovation Hub with Isenberg’s original building (1964) and its Alfond Center (2002), securing a new visual identity for the school. At the same time, it will artfully blend Isenberg with its central, strategic campus surroundings.

What is the Innovation Hub’s timeline?

Work began on the project in the summer of 2016. To date, its progress remains on schedule for its completion in September of 2018. The building’s full-use occupancy will begin in January of 2019.

How are we financing the project?

The campus will fund $24M of the Innovation Hub’s $62M price tag, and Isenberg will pay for the remaining $38M, with a very significant portion of that paid through financial support from alumni and friends. That established culture of alumni financial support—an Isenberg tradition for several decades—will endow the Business Innovation Hub as an enduring testament to the Isenberg community’s generosity and vision.  

Learn more here.