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■ "We will see more and more business schools creating joint programs with other schools. There will be more faculty teaching outside the business school and more nonfaculty teaching inside the school," says Alan Merten. options for Sage were to tear it down or let me have it." Merten worked closely with Hillier Group architect Alan learning spaces. Included in the design were executive education classrooms that were well-integrated with the rest of the school, as well as office space for non-Johnson School faculty, to encourage interaction with the rest of campus. In addition, an interior parking lot was converted into the centerpiece for the new facility, an enclosed atri- um. "It's the most dynamic part of the building," says Merten. At the same time, Chimacoff made sure to was completed in 1998. Although Merten left the Johnson Graduate School of Management for George Mason University in 1996, just as the renovations of Sage Hall began, he now looks proudly at the building and its new function on Cornell University's campus. For those who might find themselves at the bottom of a similar uphill battle, he offers sound advice. "You have to recognize that you're never keep the building's original brick, windows, and a turret that had stood for 120 years. The mix of old and new, notes Merten, "reminds people that this building has been around a long time, and connects people in the modern world to the past." The $40 million renovation of Sage Hall Chimacoff, a former Cornell student and faculty member, who made sure to combine the building's rich past with its new modern-day role. From fire safety concerns to wheel- chair access to simple aesthetics, the building "was an architectural disaster internally," says Merten. Therefore, Chimacoff gutted the interior of the building to make way for more common areas and interconnected that whatever technology came down the path in the future, we'd be prepared to add it." Bob Stundtner, a project manager at Cornell University in included high-speed copper data systems, aswell as fiber optics to be able to handle the next generation of data capacities." In addition to technology and the size of the student body, Ithaca, New York, worked on the renovation of historic Sage Hall, the new home for the Johnson Graduate School of Management since 1998. While the building's history was preserved, he explains, the building also had to be able to evolve to meet the school's future needs. "We preserved the colors and patterns of the building's original design, but administrators must also consider the new ways a business school must foster human interaction, says AlanMerten. The former dean of the JohnsonGraduate School ofManagement, Merten supervised the planning phase of Sage Hall's renovation (see "Turning Obstacles into Opportunity," facing page).He is now the president of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. "Connectivity has become going to be a high-priority project on campus. Business schools often are not considered the heart of the university—they don't have the most students, they're not the College of Arts and Sciences," he observes. "But you have to set your goals and pursue them tenaciously. From early 1989, my goal was to get a building in the middle of campus; once we saw we had a chance to get Sage Hall, my goal was to get that building renovated. But we didn't let the naysayers get to us. We knew what we wanted, and we kept accumu- lating support one person, one organization at a time." And sometimes it's simply a matter of getting, and keep- ing, people's attention, says Merten. "Be obnoxious," he advises. "And keep your focus on the result." A study area at Sage Hall. ing a new facility is an exciting time for a business school. The collective decision-making of students, faculty, staff, and alumni epitomizes the very act of community that schools seek to foster in the design of a school's new resi- dence. While each business school's design is unique, trends in business school architecture reflect a common future for management education institutions, one that promises to grow only more connected. ■ z BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2002 39 continuous rotation of occupants. No matter how external factors affect the process, build- students from science and engineering." New business school buildings, he says, must accom- modate a new level of integration as well as a more important. We will see more and more business schools creating joint programs with other schools. There will bemore faculty teaching outside the busi- ness school and more nonfaculty teaching inside the school," Merten asserts. "Business schools are adding more new programs integrated with other entities— the Johnson School, for example, now has a 12-month MBA with