AUSTIN, Texas -- Construction is moving along on the new facilities at the University of Texas at Austin's business school. A new academic building will house the McCombs MBA program when the project is complete.
What's now a construction site will soon be Rowling Hall when all is said and done.
It's a "U"-shaped building that curves along the corner of West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Guadalupe Street.
McCombs employees call the new facility "a game changer"
The current business school facilities were built decades ago. Those will become learning centers primarily for undergraduate business students.
The new building will house the graduate program.
It's more than 200,000 square feet and will house research centers, classrooms and study areas.
The $185 million project also includes an expansion of the current AT&T Center, which will connect to this new building with an underground ballroom, as well as an underground parking garage that will have more than 400 spaces.
The new classrooms are being designed in a way that will allow group work to happen effectively, and to allow for collaboration between students and faculty, and between students themselves.
Business School employees say education has changed a lot over the decades and this future set-up will create a culture better fit for today's style of learning.
"Well if you think about what you’re trying to accomplish as an MBA student, you’re looking to make connections with other business students, with faculty, with students from other colleges, you’re trying to innovate, you need a space where you can share ideas, where you can throw ideas around, test ideas," said Eric Hirst with the McCombs School Business.
Construction is expected to be complete by the end of the year, with the goal to have classes in the building by spring 2018.
To learn more about the project visit UT's website.
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