November 12, 2014
Dear Members of the University Community:
I am very pleased to inform you that we have received recent commitments for new or increased gifts totaling $8 million for the creation of a new University Welcome Center and for related construction in the Tepper Quadrangle. They are:
- CMU Trustee David Coulter (TPR’71) and his wife, Susan Weeks Coulter, have increased their commitment to $5 million for the new University Welcome Center;
- Per Lofberg (TPR’73) has pledged $2 million for general support of Tepper Quad construction; and
- An anonymous donor has pledged $1 million, also for general support of the project.
This brings the total gift commitments for Tepper Quad construction to nearly $104 million, including the historic $67 million original commitment by the charitable foundation of alumnus David A. Tepper in November 2013 that catalyzed this university-wide effort. Since then, there has been a wonderful outpouring of support for the project, and many other conversations about support are now in progress.
The Tepper Quad, planned for the area currently occupied by the Morewood Parking Lot, promises to become an iconic new sector of the Pittsburgh campus north of Forbes Avenue. The first building to be built on this quad will provide critically needed infrastructure and space, intellectual and social connections, and opportunities for the entire CMU community. As a forward-looking academic building, it will house:
- a new University Welcome Center to showcase the rich heritage of CMU and to serve as the starting point in welcoming friends, parents and future students;
- the largest auditorium on the campus with sufficient flexibility to create state-of-the-art and globally connected academic spaces for all CMU students;
- a new home for the Tepper School of Business, which will support infrastructure for forging strategic alliances with other units on campus and planning for future growth;
- new dining and fitness facilities for the campus;
- facilities to foster technology-enhanced teaching and learning, and to coordinate the on-campus and global activities of the Simon Initiative;
- facilities to help enhance innovation and entrepreneurship activities, global industry connections and technology transfer;
- gathering and meeting spaces for students and faculty from across campus;
- significant flexibility in reconfiguring physical space in response to programmatic, demographic and curricular changes and opportunities; and
- shell space for the design of new interdisciplinary activities that benefit a number of campus units.
The first building in the Tepper Quad will add nearly 300,000 total square feet of new space to the university’s physical infrastructure. It also will foster the creation of a vibrant Forbes Avenue Innovation Corridor, leveraging CMU’s renowned innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, establishing stronger connections to the University of Pittsburgh and other institutions, and enhancing the economic vibrancy of the city and the region.
This past summer, we announced the selection of Moore Ruble Yudell as architects for the project, and they are already deeply engaged with campus stakeholders in the design process. Site development on the project is scheduled to begin in early summer 2015. I am grateful to the many students, faculty, staff, alumni and trustees who have been so enthusiastically engaged in shaping and advancing this project since its announcement just a year ago.
I offer my deepest thanks to the many alumni and friends who have given so generously; they share our goal that the Tepper Quad will be a most spectacular setting for 21st century education, offering expanded opportunities to connect, collaborate and create for the entire CMU community.
With warm wishes,
Subra Suresh
President, Carnegie Mellon University
Dear Members of the University Community:
I am very pleased to inform you that we have received recent commitments for new or increased gifts totaling $8 million for the creation of a new University Welcome Center and for related construction in the Tepper Quadrangle. They are:- CMU Trustee David Coulter (TPR’71) and his wife, Susan Weeks Coulter, have increased their commitment to $5 million for the new University Welcome Center;
- Per Lofberg (TPR’73) has pledged $2 million for general support of Tepper Quad construction; and
- An anonymous donor has pledged $1 million, also for general support of the project.
This brings the total gift commitments for Tepper Quad construction to nearly $104 million, including the historic $67 million original commitment by the charitable foundation of alumnus David A. Tepper in November 2013 that catalyzed this university-wide effort. Since then, there has been a wonderful outpouring of support for the project, and many other conversations about support are now in progress.
The Tepper Quad, planned for the area currently occupied by the Morewood Parking Lot, promises to become an iconic new sector of the Pittsburgh campus north of Forbes Avenue. The first building to be built on this quad will provide critically needed infrastructure and space, intellectual and social connections, and opportunities for the entire CMU community. As a forward-looking academic building, it will house:
- a new University Welcome Center to showcase the rich heritage of CMU and to serve as the starting point in welcoming friends, parents and future students;
- the largest auditorium on the campus with sufficient flexibility to create state-of-the-art and globally connected academic spaces for all CMU students;
- a new home for the Tepper School of Business, which will support infrastructure for forging strategic alliances with other units on campus and planning for future growth;
- new dining and fitness facilities for the campus;
- facilities to foster technology-enhanced teaching and learning, and to coordinate the on-campus and global activities of the Simon Initiative;
- facilities to help enhance innovation and entrepreneurship activities, global industry connections and technology transfer;
- gathering and meeting spaces for students and faculty from across campus;
- significant flexibility in reconfiguring physical space in response to programmatic, demographic and curricular changes and opportunities; and
- shell space for the design of new interdisciplinary activities that benefit a number of campus units.
The first building in the Tepper Quad will add nearly 300,000 total square feet of new space to the university’s physical infrastructure. It also will foster the creation of a vibrant Forbes Avenue Innovation Corridor, leveraging CMU’s renowned innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, establishing stronger connections to the University of Pittsburgh and other institutions, and enhancing the economic vibrancy of the city and the region.
This past summer, we announced the selection of Moore Ruble Yudell as architects for the project, and they are already deeply engaged with campus stakeholders in the design process. Site development on the project is scheduled to begin in early summer 2015. I am grateful to the many students, faculty, staff, alumni and trustees who have been so enthusiastically engaged in shaping and advancing this project since its announcement just a year ago.
I offer my deepest thanks to the many alumni and friends who have given so generously; they share our goal that the Tepper Quad will be a most spectacular setting for 21st century education, offering expanded opportunities to connect, collaborate and create for the entire CMU community.
With warm wishes,
Subra Suresh
President, Carnegie Mellon University