February 2006

Doors Open at Duquès Hall

GW School of Business Hosts Week-Long Grand Opening Ceremonies for Its New Home, Feb. 6–10

BY JAMIE L. FREEDMAN

Walking through the doors of the gleaming, new Ric and Dawn Duquès Hall, there’s no doubt about it — GW’s School of Business is on the rise.

The University’s newest academic center, which officially opened its doors to students Jan. 17, features an impressive Capital Markets room, 27 state-of-the art classrooms with built-in audiovisual technology and executive-style chairs, a 115-seat auditorium, 19 team rooms, three computer labs, and bright and spacious student lounges and study areas. Seamlessly connected on four floors to the beautifully renovated Norma Lee and Morton Funger Hall, the vanguard facility brings the School of Business’ nine academic units, plus many related programs and services, under one roof. Academic departments were previously scattered throughout campus in eight different locations.

School of Business faculty and staff began moving into their new six-story home on 22nd Street in December. Duquès serves as the hub of business student activity, with classrooms and services, while the redesigned Funger Hall is home to the majority of the school’s faculty offices, complete with reception areas, conference rooms, and pantries. The facility also features 194 underground parking spaces, an executive conference center, a business center for student use, a Java City food venue, student e-mail terminals on the second floor, and a state-of-the-art behavior lab with an observation classroom for marketing students.

The more than $50 million project was launched in October 2002 with a ceremonial groundbreaking, followed by an official groundbreaking in 2003. The project was designed by the Smith Group, an architectural/engineering firm, and built by contractor Whiting-Turner. The massive undertaking, which involved constructing the brand new, 168,000 square-foot Duquès Hall and renovating 68,000 square feet (floors three through six) of Funger Hall, took just over two years to complete. The contemporary Duquès Hall, constructed of precast concrete, aluminum, and glass, was designed to complement and blend with Funger Hall, which opened in 1970. “The design provides an excellent solution of connecting new to old,” states Michelle Honey, director of facilities planning.

According to Honey, the southwest corner of Duquès was created to serve as “a glassy, aluminum beacon” for drivers and pedestrians using 22nd Street. “Also, Duquès sits at the terminus of the east-west spine of the campus connecting the Law School via a walkway through the Mid Campus Quad,” she says. “There is a subtle relationship between the copper roof of the tempietto (in the Mid Campus Quad) with the glazing and spandrel color selected for the façade of Duquès, further integrating campus elements.”

Architectural highlights of the new building include a first floor atrium, featuring a map of the world in the terrazzo floor with a bronze star pinpointing GW, and the Capital Markets Room — a simulated trading room — visible from the building’s front entrance with glass walls showcasing the facility’s three 60-inch plasma screens, two stock tickers, and 32 triple-monitor student trading stations. The buildings also feature wireless connectivity throughout.

Just one week into the spring semester, business students were enthusiastically taking advantage of the myriad spaces for meeting and studying — a sight that brings a smile to the face of GW School of Business Dean Susan M. Phillips. “When I first came to GW in 1998, students used to sit on the floor in the hallway near my office to work on group projects, since there were no break-out rooms, lounges, or meeting space for them at the Hall of Government,” she says. “We had overgrown the building, which we’d been in since 1938, and converted every bit of space that we had into offices, unintentionally crowding out the students. We, therefore, designed Duquès to be a student-centered building with lots of team rooms and lounges to accommodate the collaboration and group work that is such an integral part of a GW business education.”

Faculty, too, are quickly reaping the benefits of their new home. “We now have one of the best business school facilities in the country,” states Phillips. “When we were all housed in different buildings, we had to work hard at seeing each other and building a community. Now that we’re all under one roof, it’s much easier to talk and collaborate. I’m getting e-mails from faculty members saying that they look forward to coming to work every day. It’s very gratifying.”

The new home for the business school is the culmination of one of the most successful building campaigns in GW history. Central to the campaign’s success was the generosity of GW Trustee Ric Duquès, BBA ’65, MBA ’69, CEO of First Data Corp., and Dawn Duquès, BA ’68, who donated $5 million to name the new building. Their son, David, graduated from GW with a BBA in 1997, and their daughter, Tiffany, earned her BBA in 2002.

Duquès attended GW on a basketball scholarship and later returned on a graduate teaching fellowship. His son David calculated the present value of his father’s scholarships at approximately $453,000. “So I rounded up to $5 million,” explains Duquès “I felt I had an obligation to the University to give something back. 

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