Go south, young men and women

Business students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha tend to come to Roskens Hall for a class or two and then dash off to their jobs or to classes elsewhere on the university's Dodge Street campus.

Not much informal interaction with other students or faculty members, said Louis Pol, UNO business dean.

That's about to change.

When the College of Business Administration moves from Roskens Hall to the new Mammel Hall this summer, its lounges, dining areas, atrium and even its broad hallways are designed to extend the learning experience beyond the classroom.

“We'd like our students to have a reason to stay in the building,” Pol said. “There are great places to study. There are places to meet their friends and the folks they are taking classes with. They can learn from each other and have a better place to meet with the faculty and staff.

“So much of education takes place in conversations and groups outside the classroom.”

Curtis Witzenburg of Holland Basham Architects of Omaha said Mammel Hall's design is in line with new trends in postsecondary education buildings.

“We're providing areas for the students to collaborate, the faculty to collaborate, and really to encourage student-faculty collaboration as well,” he said. “There's a series of informal areas scattered throughout the building,” plus seating in outdoor plazas near the building's entrances.

The new building at 67th and Pine Streets on UNO's South Campus also will be open for community groups, the first time the business college has had a facility that will work for such events.

Private donations, led by retired Omaha businessman Carl Mammel and his late wife, Joyce, are covering the $34 million cost of the building. A fund-raising drive for a $7.5 million endowment to support programs at the college is within a few million of its goal, Pol said.

“I would bet that Omaha will rise to that challenge,” said James Krieger, chief financial officer of the Gallup Organization and a director of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. “It's an outstanding symbol of the depth of support for higher business education in the community and by the individual donors.”

Education is a strong component of employment and economic development for a city, Krieger said, so it's important for a city to have vibrant higher education opportunities.

The university will cover the cost of the building's operations and maintenance.

Senior business student Marshal McGovern said he's looking forward to taking classes in the new building this fall.

“It's a great addition,” said McGovern, who is president of the college's professional development group, Delta Epsilon Chi.

Parking will be more available he said, but business students will have to take shuttle buses or work out transportation to attend other classes on the Dodge Street campus.

“It's a little distant. But I think it will really help the College of Business,” McGovern said.

Pol said the college will start moving in mid-July and be relocated by Aug. 1. Roskens Hall will be renovated so the College of Education can begin classes there in the fall of 2011.

Roskens Hall has about 95,000 square feet of space. Mammel Hall will have about 120,000 square feet.

While the hallways at Roskens, which is named for former NU President Ronald Roskens, are less than 10 feet wide, the Mammel hallways are almost twice as wide. At 18 feet to 20 feet wide, there is enough room for seating and places for students to gather, Pol said.

Roskens Hall's auditorium seats 370 people and can be divided into four smaller rooms via movable walls. Mammel Hall's auditorium will seat about 200 people and doesn't have movable walls.

“It's a better learning environment, because instead of having chairs with those fold-over desks, we actually have tables and loose chairs behind the tables,” giving students more space for writing, using laptop computers and interacting with each other, Pol said.

The building will have food service, possibly provided by the nearby Wohlner's Market, and several lounges for studying and eating. The first floor has an atrium with a 54-foot window wall that brings in natural light and couches, tables, chairs, flat-screen video monitors and other amenities.

“There's a lot to look at. It's an attractive place,” Pol said.

The building is expected to be certified as environmental friendly, according to the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system. The contractor is Kiewit Building Group.

The building will have room to add some staff, but offices are smaller than in Roskens Hall.

“We wanted to move that space out to where it can get more public use,” Pol said. “That's not being insensitive to faculty and staff needs. People need time when they're private and they can do their work without other people being around. But so much of their time is spent outside those rooms anyway.

“We made sure we have adequate space for the kinds of collaboration that continue to take place.”

The college has 50 full-time faculty members and more than 50 adjunct faculty members. The new building also will house the Nebraska Business Development Center, an arm of the college that has never been in the same building as the college proper, and its entrepreneur shop.

The college offers noncredit courses as well, along with executive management training and other activities beyond traditional college classes.

A dedication ceremony is set for Oct. 15, with Carl Mammel, a founder of the employee benefits firm now known as Silverstone Holdings, and other donors invited. Joyce Mammel died last summer but was able to see the building plans and early progress.

Pol said that the college has about 2,500 students and that he expects to add about 300 students over the next three to five years, in part because of the new facility.

“I look forward to the first few times walking in the front door with a prospective student and their parents and just looking at the expression on their faces, to watch them really be influenced by the physical nature, the beauty of that building,” Pol said.

“It's a great piece of architecture, and it's also functional.”

By Steve Jordon - Omaha World Hearld - 2/2/10