Ever wondered what was going on with Building A, the one located east of the newly renamed Lech Walesa Building? The renovation of the building, which commenced in July 2007, is well on its way to being completed. The building will house the College of Business and Management (COBM) which includes the following four majors: Accounting, Finance Management, Marketing and General Business Administration. This will be the first time Northeastern will have a building solely dedicated to one college department. The building will even have its own entrance on Bryn Mawr Avenue.
Building A is partially completed in the sense that the college’s faculty and staff have already moved into their offices. The building will contain a new computer lab, a large lounge area, five new classrooms and plenty of meeting rooms (dubbed “breakout rooms”), complete with multimedia technology. The building’s four classrooms have yet to be completely finished while other rooms still lack the technology to function completely. This technology includes computers for the new computer lab, Wi-Fi compatibility throughout the many offices and rooms and a plasma television for the lounge area, among other things.
All full-time COBM faculty have their own office, while adjunct faculty will share offices in pairs of two. This is a remarkable difference when compared to the university’s other colleges where most professors, regardless of their full-time status, share their office with up to three other individuals. Another important detail is the accessibility of the building for COBM students. They will be able to do most of their school related work in one building, since Building A contains its own advising center to exclusively help COBM students.
Amy Hietapelto, Dean of the College of Business and Management, stressed the importance of the new building to COBM students and the university as a whole.
“The focus was to make the space accessible for all students. It will be a place for business students to gather and communicate with each other,” said Hietapelto.
The COBM used to be located in the basement area of the Lech Walesa Building, an area that contained no windows and dated classrooms. Because of this, Hietapelto is ecstatic that business students will soon be taking advantage of “state of the art” classrooms and technology. She hopes that the college’s new location will raise the profile of the university in the business community that will help students get jobs and will help them in their careers.
Students overall have already taken a liking to the new building. The COBM lounge area, which will be renamed at a later date, has seen a great amount of student traffic. The lounge space contains plenty of comfortable seating areas, tables, and skylights which add natural lighting to the area, and will also be fully Wi-Fi compatible when completed. Building A’s renovation process is expected to be completely finished by the end of the fall semester.