Marian University broke ground recently for Alumni Hall, its new student center.
The private Catholic university located 10 minutes west of downtown Indianapolis expects the facility to open in fall 2014.
Alumni Hall is a 19,000 square foot, one-story facility that will house the university’s bookstore, and will serve as a gathering place for students, staff and faculty. There will be an additional 6,500 square feet of outdoor seating options. An indoor food court will include a Starbucks Café, a Papa John’s Pizza restaurant, and a Grill Works.
“We like to think of our new Alumni Hall as the family room for the Marian University campus,” President Daniel J. Elsener said. “Our students value the access they have to our staff and faculty, and this facility will help further in that regard.”
One striking design concept will be the curtain wall of windows on the building’s westside, overlooking the campus mall. Another prominent feature is the great room and its 20-foot high ceiling. Other ceilings in the building are 11 feet high. There will be front, back and side terrace areas, providing outdoor seating and gathering areas. There are also study areas, including three nooks with screens and computer ports that accommodate small group collaboration.
Marian University says Alumni Hall will be easily converted into a banquet hall, with seating for up to 340 guests.
This is the second major construction project on the Marian University campus this year. In August, the university opened the Michael A. Evans Center for Health Sciences, home to its new College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Alan and Sue Leighton School of Nursing. That project was completed at a cost of $50 million, and directly created 318 jobs and had an economic impact of $57 million.
Marian University (www.marian.edu), founded in Indianapolis in 1937, serves a student body of more than 2,600 through dedication to excellent teaching and learning in the Franciscan and liberal arts traditions. Marian University is one of Indiana’s 31 independent colleges and one of 244 Catholic colleges and universities nationwide.
