Just Business

Cal State Fullerton embarks on new business college facility

By David Silva

What do actor Kevin Costner and retired Inter-Tel CEO Steven G. Mihaylo have in common?

They're both graduates of the College of Business and Economics at California State University, Fullerton.

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Costner graduated from the College of Business and Economics in 1978 with a degree in marketing while Steven G. Mihaylo donated $4.5 million toward constructing a new home for the college.

Steven G. Mihaylo Hall is a five-story, 195,000-sq-ft effort by university officials to modernize, expand and relocate the school from its present location in the campus's Langsdorf Hall. The $87.5 million facility is named after the 1969 alumnus and Inter-Tel founder, whose gift is the largest single donation in the school's history. Tempe-based Inter-Tel is a voice and data communications firm.

"The business school is spread across campus in four different buildings right now," says Marcia Harrison, campaign director for the college. "This building will allow the college facilities to all be housed in one building, under one roof.

"It will also provide more collaboration between faculty and faculty, students and students, and students and faculty. Students will be able to have classes, meet with professors and have club meetings in our new home."

Workers broke ground on the project in October 2005, and university officials expect it to be ready in time for the fall 2008 school term.
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The project, designed by the Los Angeles office of St. Louis-based HOK Architecture, comprises a curved building abutting Nutwood Avenue and East Campus Drive in Fullerton, with two "wings" -- one 19,000 sq ft, the other 21,000 -- situated in the inside curve.

The Los Angeles office of Turner Construction is the general contractor for the facility.

The hall will feature 12 centers of excellence - facilities that Harrison describes as "providing additional educational experience" for students. Among them are centers for entrepreneurship, insurance studies, corporate reporting and governance, economics of aging, economic education, and emerging markets.

There will also be institutes for economic and environmental studies, real estate and land use, and small business.

The project will also feature more than 30 classrooms, including several designed for seminar seating; a tiered, 250-seat lecture hall; computer labs; space for students and faculty to meet; student club areas for the school's 14 business clubs; and an executive conference room for the college president's and dean's advisory boards.

It will have a café, grand foyer, outside patio on the third floor and additional event space.

"Our design philosophy was to tie the project back to the color palette of the existing campus," says Ernest Cirangle, HOK design director. "The hall is located on a campus that has a mixture of brick and precast and light panel systems on some of the buildings. We've integrated both of those colors - salmon-colored brick and white plaster and metal panels - into the project to parrot back the character of the campus.

"The building is organized in a diagonal circulation pattern that brings people through the lobby to the central courtyard. On the more public side, we wanted to present a powerful gateway to the campus. We actually redirected the campus entrance so that the building now sits on the corner that is the predominant entrance to the campus."

The Project Team

Owner:
Cal State Fullerton

General Contractor:
Turner Construction, Los Angeles

Architect:
HOK Architecture, Los Angeles

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