Wake Forest University is expanding. Two residence halls and a dining facility are under construction on the North end of campus. A new business school is also in the works. Farrell Hall will welcome undergraduate and graduate business school students in August.
Construction workers are busy scurrying inside and outside of Farrell Hall at Wake Forest University. Inside, dry wall still needs painted and wires are hanging out of ceiling light fixtures. Light cherry wood panels line the large glass windows inside the building.
The four story 130,000 square foot building is shaped like a trapezoid.
David Clark, the Assistant Dean of Administration for the School of Business, says the building matches the Georgian style architecture on campus. But inside, there will be a more modern design.
“You can see as we go through this threshold and we have walked into this really powerful living room that is designed in this Frank Lloyd Wright model of going through a narrow threshold and coming into this expansive beautiful space. This is that 8,200 square foot living room where students from all over the campus can come in and hang out and eat at Einstein's Bagels,” says Clark.
A fire pit and seating area outside will also provide space for socializing. The center will also provide much needed academic space. Clark says 18 classrooms will be housed in the building.
“Over the space on the highest level is the colloquium space. There is a lot of glass. It is designed to have between 60 and 100 people meeting in that space, which is again a space that Wake Forest needs right now.”
Clark added, “The second level, which is between the colloquium and where we are now is our information commons, which is a bookless library.”
Farrell Hall has lots of technology for students and staff to use. More than 100 LCD television screens will be placed throughout the center to provide collaborative learning opportunities. Clark says a recruitment center is also being constructed.
“Farrell Hall will house the university's recruiting center. When employers come to interview our students of all different majors for jobs, they will use a full scale recruitment center on our auditorium level that will house 14 technologically connected recruiting rooms and a meeting room and kitchenette, so they can relax and have their own space. It will be a first class space to show off our first class students to potential employers,” says Clark.
The cost of the new building is $53.5 million. The money for the new business school was raised from various private donors. The idea for Farrell Hall began as a napkin sketch during a university dinner a few years ago. Donor Mike Farrell and his wife Mary pledged $10-million to Wake Forest Officials to seed the project.
Their son, Michael is a 2010 graduate of the school. Mike Farrell died of cancer late last year. But his family will be part of the official grand opening for the new business school in November.
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