Marquette’s Green Monster

No, Marquette University is not building a replica of a Boston baseball stadium on its campus. But change is afoot.

The university is building a $60 million home for its College of Business Administration and innovation leadership programs.

The university is billing the 100,000-square-foot facility as the anchor to the campus’ western gateway. The new building will include a sizable open atrium, classrooms, faculty office space, lab and study spaces and event space.

Located at the northeast corner of N. 16th St. and W. Wisconsin Ave., the site was home to the 725-bed McCormick Hall for more than 50 years. But the 12-story, beer-can-shaped residence hall was demolished starting in 2019, with the university selling commemorative can koozies to mark its demise.

Led by J.H. Findorff & Son, construction got underway last March at 1530 W. Wisconsin Ave. and has now reached the point where green insulation is visible from blocks away. A brick facade will soon cover the south side of the building, as it already does on the north side.

A name has yet to be released for the new building, but it is expected to be completed by December 2022. It’s the largest building entirely funded by donors in the university’s history.

A 2016 master plan envisioned a recreation and wellness center being constructed on the site. But in January 2020, university president Michael R. Lovell announced plans for the new academic building.

It’s one of several new buildings on the campus in recent years. McCormick Hall was rendered obsolete by a new, 890-bed residence hall, The Commons, that opened in 2018 two blocks west. The Athletic and Human Performance Research Center opened in spring 2019. A new Physician Assistant Studies building also opened later that year.

The College of Business Administration has been located in Straz Hall for 36 years.

Kansas City-based BNIM and Workshop Architects are partnering on the design of the new building.

Photos

Renderings

McCormick Hall Demolition