The rapid growth and increasingly international focus of the business school over the past decade or so echoes Coca-Cola's unparalleled expansion under Goizueta's leadership into the global marketplace several decades earlier.
In recognition of Goizueta's world-renowned leadership at Coca-Cola, the Woodruff Foundation gave $10 million in his name toward the construction of the $25-million Goizueta Business School building. (The gift was one of the largest of the five-year Emory Campaign.)
Groundbreaking ceremonies were held last April, and foundation work began in December for the building on Clifton Road across the street from the law school.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, Business School Dean Ronald Frank discussed the ways in which the building's architecture will enhance teaching and learning. Frank said the buildings' classrooms will be laid out in a U-shape with seats that pivot. "This design will allow any one person to be able to talk to any other person in the room face to face," Frank said. "That's very important for peer dialogue, especially in a school where most of the students are already experienced professionals who are capable of helping each other learn."
Frank said the building will contain 15-20 breakout rooms where students can work on special projects or hold meetings. He also said that every classroom in the building will face a central courtyard, which will serve as a commons area for faculty, students and staff. "Until now, no business school has used architecture as a way to support learning," Frank said. "We are using architecture to support and enhance the kind of educational culture that we want to celebrate."
The five-story, 110,000-square-foot building, set to open in the late spring or early summer of 1997, will house faculty office and support space on the two upper floors, a 200-seat auditorium on the first floor, four classrooms each on the second and third floors, and an additional classroom in the Executive Education area on the second floor. Each of the classrooms will seat approximately 65 students.
The building's street-level entrance will be on the second floor. While most of the first floor will be below grade, one side of the floor will face onto a courtyard similar to an existing courtyard near the Glenn Church School Building. The business school was designed by Kallmann, McKinnell and Wood Architects of Boston, and the general contractor is Holder Construction.
--Dan Treadaway