Expanding Our Footprint

As part of Lehigh's Path to Prominence initiative to add more students and scholars and spark innovation, the College of Business has started construction on a 74,000-square-foot building catty-corner to the Rauch Business Center. (Scroll down to watch the live construction cameras!)

"We are poised to take off as one of the nation's leading business schools," said Georgette Chapman Phillips, the Kevin L. and Lisa A. Clayton Dean of the College of Business. "To do that, we must compete for the best students and the best faculty. This new building will not only allow us to expand, it will give us the opportunity to teach in innovative and technologically sophisticated classrooms. It will facilitate faculty/student and, just as importantly, student/student learning interactions."

internal rendering of classroom
Artist rendering of planned "in the round" classroom.

Plans for the building have been underway for over five years.

Timeline

Building construction got final approval from the Board of Trustees in February 2020. The pandemic pushed plans back one year. Current schedule is as follows:

  • April 1, 2021 – Site turned over to construction crew
  • May 2021 – Demolition and site clean-up
  • June 2021 – Begin construction
  • August 2022 – Building occupancy

New Facilities

The new building will accommodate 16 additional teaching spaces for both the undergraduate and graduate programs, all equipped for remote and hybrid learning.

There will also be an expanded Financial Services Lab, a Data Analytics Lab and a Rauch Media and Communications Lab to support oral, written and digital communications classes.

A Behavioral Lab will allow for observation and subject interviews, and there will be business innovation/incubator space for entrepreneurial exploration. The building also will be the new home of the Vistex Institute for Executive Learning and Research.

Live Construction Cameras

Watch the building grow!

Learn About the New Business Building

Watch the videos below to learn more or view the entire video playlist.

New Lehigh Business Building Will Have the Tools Students Need

Jeffrey Bosland '88, '22P, Lehigh trustee and Bosland Financial Services Lab donor talks about how business' ever increasing dependency on technology drives the need for the new Lehigh Business building.

New Lehigh Business Building is Built for Lifelong Learning

McKay Price, Webster A. Collins and Murray H. Goodman Chair in Real Estate Finance and associate professor talks about how Lehigh Business determined that a new business building was necessary and is designed to accommodate lifelong learning.

Jeffrey Bosland '88, '22P Talks About the Importance of Giving Back

Jeffrey Bosland '88, '22P, Lehigh trustee and Bosland Financial Services Lab Donor talks about the significance of Lehigh in his life as a first generation student and how important it is to support Lehigh so that it will continue to grow.

New Lehigh Business Building Sits at the Intersection of Business & Technology

Georgette Chapman Phillips, the Kevin L. and Lisa A. Clayton Dean of the College of Business talks about how the new Lehigh Business building is a physical expression of the college's aspiration to be at the intersection of business and technology.

"This New Business Building" Video Series

New videos will be shared as construction milestones occur. Stay tuned!
Dean Phillips and Rob Douglass

Episode 5 - Architecture

Robert Douglas, senior associate at Voith & Mactavish Architects, the architecture firm that designed our new building, talks about the architectural planning that goes into building on campus.

Watch

Dean Phillips and Professor McKay Price

Episode 4 - Pedagogy

McKay Price, associate professor in the Perella Department of Finance and director of the Goodman Center for Real Estate talks about how the design of the new building will facilitate a new way of learning.

Watch

By the Numbers

Since the opening of Rauch in 1991, the College of Business has had:

100%
Increase in the college’s interdisciplinary majors
43%
Increase in the college's undergraduate enrollment
38%
Increase in the college's business faculty

Support Lehigh Business Goals for Growth and Success

To ensure continued success in the College of Business and to remain competitive among top-tier institutions in the U.S, we must invest strategically in our critical goals. To learn more, please contact:

Jim Mann
Director of Development, College of Business
Office: 610.758.5689 | Cell: 610.704.9979 | jam508@lehigh.edu