In designing the new home for Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business, the university wanted Gerri C. LeBow Hall to be a marquee building that would be tailored to accommodate best practices in business education.

VMA, as architect of record, collaborated with Robert A.M. Stern Architects to respond to that goal. The design approach stressed flexibility while forming a strong visual connection to downtown Philadelphia and a physical connection between the university’s main quadrangle and bustling Market Street.

To achieve this, the building features robust masonry and glass. Students are exposed to a corporate environment through a series of innovative student spaces and a transparent, open interior oriented around a central atrium, which creates a place for informal interaction between students, faculty, and visitors. Learning spaces include a mock trading lab, small business incubator, “cluster” classrooms that accommodate both lectures and group work, and small, isolated breakout rooms for collaboration.

Landscape completed in association with  Lager Raabe Skafte.

PUBLICATIONS

• Designs for Learning: College and University Buildings by Robert A. M. Stern Architects. Robert A.M. Stern et al. The Monacelli Press: New York, 2017.
• Philadelphia Inquirer, November 2013
• “Changing Skyline: Drexel’s New Business School Building Takes its Surroundings into Account” by Inga Saffron. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 6 Nov 2013.