Purdue Approves Construction Bid for New Mitchell Daniels School of Business Building

West Lafayette — Purdue University has approved construction contracts for the New Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., School of Business.

The following announcement was made by Purdue.

To accommodate student enrollment growth across the university and strategic initiatives in the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, Purdue University trustees on Friday (Dec. 8) gave approval to plan, finance, construct and award construction contracts for an approximately 164,000-square-foot building near the intersection of Mitch Daniels Boulevard and Sheetz Street on the West Lafayette campus.

The facility, which will include new flexible space in support of academic instruction and conferences, will provide modern teaching and research labs for financial trading, data visualization, behavioral research and experiential learning. The building will feature one floor below ground and five above ground, as well as mechanical space on the sixth floor.

To support Purdue’s Classroom Master Plan, the building will feature three large general-purpose, centrally scheduled classrooms — one accommodating 500 students and two accommodating 250 students apiece. 

The building, which will be connected to the Krannert Building immediately to its east, will give the Daniels School three facilities, joining the Krannert Building and Jerry S. Rawls Hall. All are connected, both above and below ground.

The new facility will be the second-largest classroom building on the Purdue campus, behind only the Wilmeth Active Learning Center.

“We’re thrilled with what our design committee and architects have drafted,” said Jim Bullard, the Dr. Samuel R. Allen Dean of the Daniels School. “First, with its striking transparent exterior, the building will draw students, faculty, alumni and visitors to campus inside to see what’s happening.

“More importantly, it is a student-centered building. It will provide learning environments and study spaces at the cutting edge of business school facilities. There will be space for research centers and partnership opportunities with practitioners, as well as student advising areas. Our large classroom spaces will accommodate not only business school students, but those from other schools and units on campus.”

The scope and location of this project aligns with the Daniels School master plan and the 2018 Giant Leaps campus master plan.

Demand has never been higher for a Purdue business education. The Daniels School is expected to enroll 4,000 students in fall 2024, up more than 1,600 students from five years ago. Applications were up 18% this fall from a year ago. The new building has to be large enough to house a burgeoning student population while also creating a collaborative culture.

As part of the project, a portion of the first floor of the adjacent Krannert Building will be renovated. The nearby Krannert Center for Executive Education and Research and the Wesley Foundation facilities will be demolished.

Construction is scheduled to begin in July 2024 and be completed in April 2027. The estimated total project cost of $168 million will be financed by gift funds. Of the total, $125 million will be for the new building and related utility work, while the remaining $43 million will be for the three large classrooms, land acquisition and building demolition, renovations to the Krannert Building, and miscellaneous additional site work.