UCLA’s Anderson School of Management
A building is an expression of culture. The aesthetics echo the mission of the institution, a commemoration of the past with an eye to the future. The layout and materials create a certain identity, one that spotlights what the program truly values. At the same time, buildings are works-in-progress, which must be flexible enough to respond to evolving technologies and professional requirements.
Among business schools, you won’t find two more different campuses than UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. These differences extend far beyond California sunshine vs. Chicago bite. Anderson is a six building complex with a consistent four color brick and cast stone exterior, which is accentuated by wide plazas and courtyards. Contrast that to the University of Chicago, which boasts campuses across the world – including two in Chicago – a nod to the school’s reach and renown.
AT BOOTH, ART TEACHES STUDENTS TO LOOK AT BUSINESS DIFFERENTLY
At Anderson, form follows function. The curriculum is decidedly team-driven. Thanks to the school’s spacious outdoors accommodations – and Mediterranean climate – the students generally cluster together outdoors. “A lot of our culture and structure comes from our students,” says Jami Jesek Carman, the school’s senior associate dean and chief operations officer in an interview with Poets&Quants. “By and large, one of the things that impresses outside entities is how collaborative our students are. It is a very tight network of students. It is a constant living lab. Wherever they go, they are always exchanging ideas.”
Artwork in a first floor study area at Booth.
Booth also stresses teamwork. In addition, it exudes an academic air, which is amplified through wrinkles designed to stir creativity. For one, the school maintains a vibrant roster of clubs, including those catering to epicureans, wine lovers, skiers, singers, and dancers. During holiday exams, the school features an acapella group singing Christmas carols in its Harper Center, the Hyde Park home of its full-time MBAs. In addition, Booth maintains a world class contemporary art collection to push students out of their comfort zones, says Stacey Kole, the deputy dean for alumni, corporate relations, and the full time MBA program.
“The art is really there to stimulate your thinking, to push you to a different angle on an issue. The University of Chicago is all about creating an environment where people learn, so the art is a very unique way to do that. I would argue there is not another business school that has invested in putting together the kind of collection that we have. That’s stimulating.”
DUKE EARNS HIGHEST MARKS FOR QUALITY FACILITIES
Two distinct visions…but the same result. Both Booth and Anderson ranked among the top business school campuses according to an annual survey conducted by The Economist. In the “arms race” era of business schools – where fresh, attractive campuses with a wealth of amenities are dangled to attract the best talent – the facilities survey is a means to measure which programs live up to their sales pitches.
In 2017, The Economist polled current MBA students and alumni about the quality of their schools’ facilities using a scale of 1 (Poor) to 5 (Excellent). Overall, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, whose campus was profiled in P&Q’s 2017 incarnation of this story, ranked first among Top 20 MBA programs with a 4.68 score. Fuqua was clearly the crème de la crème of MBA facilities, scoring a .10 of a point higher than runners-up Booth and Harvard Business School (which was also featured by P&Q in 2017). Rounding out the top five were the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College (4.54) and Anderson (4.52). In contrast, the London Business School earned the lowest marks among top programs at 3.63, a far cry from IE Business School (3.93) and Columbia Business School (4.01) in student satisfaction.
One trend is clear: MBA students are expecting more in terms of facilities and services than ever. Among the 26 programs reviewed by P&Q, 24 notched a lower score in the 2017 survey over its 2015 counterpart. Fuqua and Booth, for example, scored .10 and .11 lower respectively. In fact, four programs (IE Business School, Columbia, North Carolina Kenan-Flagler, and UC-Berkeley Haas) experienced a drop of .30 of a point or more over the past two years. Just HEC Paris (+.18) and Michigan Ross (+.13) saw their scores surge over the same period. That said, the numbers are positive in a larger context. Just two programs scored below 4 (above average), with the difference between #1 Fuqua and #15 INSEAD being just .31 of a point.
FLEXIBILITY KEY TO THE HARPER CENTER’S SUCCESS
Stacey Kole, Deputy Dean for Alumni, Corporate Relations and the Full-Time MBA Program at Booth
So what makes Booth and Anderson so special? It might help to tour the facilities. At Booth, that would start in the Harper Center, which is also home to the school’s faculty. In particular, Kole would direct a prospective student’s attention to the Winter Garden, which she jokes is a state of mind as much as a place. The “hub of student life,” the Winter Garden is a sun-drenched central atrium, replete with cushy couches for students to hang out. It also a flexible space, able to accommodate 500-600 people in theater-in-the-round style seating or adjusted to create a nightclub atmosphere to celebrate graduation.
“The facilities team here is unbelievable,” says Kole. “We can convert the building – sometimes it is pink or orange – and they can re-set the tone of the space so beautifully. We’ve taken great pains to make sure the acoustics are great too. What our facility allows us to do is host everything from major speakers to a big Friday Happy Hour for 200 prospective students to a dinner party with beautiful china. Then, by the morning, it is back to a space that has couches and small tables so students can gather and collaborate. We do all sorts of things.”
The Harper Center also houses a large multifunctional room, explains Jeremy Guthrie, the school’s executive director of finance and facilities. Here, he says, the school hosts brown bags for faculty to present their research or host guest speakers like Jamie Dimon and Jack Welch. This space has also been expanded to accommodate flipped classrooms and experimental teaching. In addition, Booth has recently upgraded the space devoted to the school’s research professionals and Ph.D. students, key components of the program’s thought leadership.
Atrium of the Harper Center, the main building of the Booth School of Business
PROXIMITY PRODUCES PARTNERSHIPS
The best part of the Harper Center, however, is how close it is to the rest of the University of Chicago’s campus. “You can walk to the law school and take a class,” Kole points out. “You can walk to the main campus and take courses in any part of the university. Unlike other institutions, which try to separate themselves from the university, we see an enormous advantage of bringing other students into our classes and getting our students to take classes elsewhere. It broadens who we are.”
This proximity comes in handy with the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which is housed both in the Harper Center and a 53rd Street facility – with the latter featuring 34,000 square feet of cohabitation space that includes innovation labs and an accelerator. “We have people from all over the university coming together and other universities to work on creating ideas that feed companies,” Kole explains. It brings our students closer to the scientists and the scientists closer to people who can help them commercialize their businesses.”
At Booth, the action is hardly confined to Hyde Park. Just steps from the downtown Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, the school also operates the Gleacher Center. The 50,000 square foot, six-story space is home to the school’s part-time and executive education programs. At the same time, it doubles as a conference center catering to organizations across the region, with sweeping views of the river that rank among the best in Chicago.
MOST BOOTH STUDENTS LIVE NEAR DOWNTOWN FACILITY
Sitting alongside a spacious plaza, which Booth uses for reunions and student picnics, the Gleacher Center also features the Midway Club, a restaurant catered by Wolfgang Puck. It also includes a grab-and-go student café and a bar, which draws heavily from Booth’s Hyde Park campus. In fact, the Gleacher Center ranks alongside the Winter Garden as a meeting spot for full-time MBAs. That’s no accident, Kole explains, since many students live in a set of buildings near River North that are “almost like dorms equipped with study lounges and computer labs.” Already living in the neighborhood, many full-time students head to Gleacher and the “455 building” across the street to eat, hold meetings, and continue working together.
Booth’s downtown Gleacher Center
This 455 building – popularly known as NBC Tower – has been a recent investment for the school. Thanks to the increasing popularity of Booth’s programming, the school renovated space on the ground floor, adding 16 student rooms, a conference room, additional classrooms, and (of course) artwork. At the same time, the neighborhood around Gleacher has been spruced up, with The Apple Store moving next door and the city lining the streets with new trees.
Best of all, Booth owns their building. “We’re not going to get priced out of the neighborhood,” Kole states. “The neighborhood is only going to get better around us.”
Booth’s footprint extends far beyond Chicago too. For one, the school is building a Hong Kong campus, which sits on a hill overlooking the South China Sea, to replace its rented facility on the main island. According to Kole, the new facility is slated to open this summer. At the same time, Booth’s European Executive MBA program is housed in the Woolgate Exchange, right in the heart of London’s Financial District. In addition, the school operates centers in Paris and India. Such far-flung enterprises offer an unexpected benefit, Kole adds. “Because we are so closely tied to the larger institutions, our students are welcome to use all of these facilities. For example, when students go to India to work on some entrepreneurial idea, they can park themselves in the India Center and work from there. They are not Booth only, but University of Chicago sites.”
SETTINGS DESIGNED TO SPUR AN “EXCHANGE OF IDEAS”
At Anderson, the Marion Anderson Courtyard acts as the hub of the program. In fact, the courtyard is literally the center of campus, smack in the middle of six buildings encircling it. The courtyard is so popular that the school has installed solar umbrellas so students could plug in their devices and spend their day outside if they chose.
“I see this every single day with students passing by from the café,” says Jesek Carman. “They live in the courtyard. There are different programs that meet and gather out there. They exchange ideas and talk about their classes. There is a continual conversation that happens, the free flow of information has become a living classroom.”
On any tour, Jesek Carman would also highlight the Anderson Venture Accelerator. Boasting 10,000 square feet, the accelerator offers space for students to start or build their own business – and features the flexibility to adapt the space to fit students’ custom needs.
The Anderson Venture Accelerator is housed on the ground level of the Rosenfeld Library at Anderson and is a massive 10,000-square-feet. Courtesy photo
“Practically every inch of the wall space, including the tables, are mobile so you can break the room down and create whatever workspace that you need,” she observes. “We have probably 120 students in there in a 24 hour period off-and-on. This is a hub for a variety of our MBA programs where they can collaborate with not just full-time MBAs but the fully-employed among the executive MBA students and undergraduate students with an entrepreneurship minor as well. This is what it does: It helps students get together and fosters the exchange of ideas.”
THURSDAY BEER BUSTS WELCOME STUDENT FAMILIES…AND PETS
Like Booth, the Anderson campus is a work-in-progress. Notably, the school broke ground on Marion Anderson Hall in January. Scheduled to open in December 2019, this 64,000 square foot addition will boost event and administrative space at the school. Even more, it will include flipped classroom space, where setup can be adjusted for pedagogy. Like other buildings in the Anderson complex, Anderson Hall will rely heavily on glass, natural light, and open space – a nod to the school’s consistent indoor-outdoor feel. At the same time, Marion Anderson’s interior will integrate the same “modern” and “outdoor” feel of the complex that models its “Think in the next” philosophy.
“We’re in separate buildings, but each building has an atrium,” says Rob Weiler, associate dean for the full-time MBA program. “These wide open spaces serve double duty for cocktail receptions with employers. Jamie’s team has also done a great job in putting a lot of sleek-looking furniture in there. It looks almost like an Apple Store.”
Most often, you’ll find Anderson students outside, with pockets of furniture planted across the various lawns. The program also takes pains to leverage the “fresh air” whenever possible. On the North Lawn, for example, the school holds its Thursday Anderson Afternoon Beer Busts. Here, 300-400 students from Anderson’s various programs gather to mingle. It is so informal that even spouses, children and dogs are welcome to join. Such gatherings also reinforce the “One Anderson” concept that permeates the program.
UCLA Anderson School of Management
STUDENTS HEAVILY INFLUENCE DECISIONS AT ANDERSON
“We are a school comprised of different programs,” asserts Weiler. “The full-time MBA is the flagship, but when you look at the various programs – the resources we share and the synergies between the programs, whether you are enrolled in the FEMBA program or the full-time program. They are taught by the same faculty; they are allowed to join clubs; there is a lot of overlap, which affords some really interesting opportunities. For example, the full time students can talk to the FEMBAs about careers, which provides students with some pretty significant advantages. Some schools have different campuses. We’re located in the same complex.”
With students sharing the same physical space, Anderson is able to break down silos, all while creating opportunities for students to “cross-pollinate” in Jesek Carman’s words. This collaborative mindset isn’t just restricted to students, she adds. “A lot of the improvements the school has made have come from students. They certainly have a lot of ideas. Where we can, we try to meet their needs. It’s a great partnership between school and student body. We collectively make this a better place for everyone.”
For example, the school hosts a student-led facilities group, which meets periodically to discuss infrastructure needs. Jesek Carman herself has started a sustainability group across the business school, one that has already produced a substantive change on campus. “We brought in these water bottle filters called FloWater,” she explains. “This system puts water through 17-18 different filters and it is an amazing water experience. And I have to say it is good for water standards and the students love this. And it has the added benefit of lowering our land fill. That’s important to UCLA since we are striving to have zero waste by 2025.”
BOOTH STUDENTS AND FACULTY REGULARLY DINE TOGETHER
University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
At Booth, MBA students also forge close bonds with faculty and staff. The campus setting is a big reason why. According to Kole, Booth faculty members return to their offices in the Harper Center 5-6 times a week. As a result, they interact with students regularly. In fact, student government has even established a program where students will take a faculty member to coffee or lunch to further deepen their relationships.
“Big name faculty will go to lunch with students,” Kole explains. “That happens because they’re all going to lunch anyway and they’re in the same physical space. The fact that we have one main home for our faculty, and it is also the home of the full-time program affords a level of interaction that very much fits our culture. This place is about ideas. We ask faculty to do brown bag lunches and 300 students will turn up. Last night, we had a neuroscientist come over to talk about empathy and 200 students showed up. That dynamic happens here in a way I would argue just doesn’t happen in other programs.”
Booth’s facilities also lend themselves to career support. Traditionally, Booth ranks among the top MBA programs for job placement. Aside from great staff and students, the Harper Center includes 40-50 rooms earmarked for company interviews, not to mention a lounge and outdoor patio specifically for recruiters. What’s more, the school offers a unique benefit that helps students always look their best.
BOOTH STUDENTS FIND EVERYTHING THEY NEED IN-HOUSE
“Our students can go down to the ground level to lockers that are large enough for their suits,” Kole says. “They can use the steamer to remove wrinkles from their suits. Our facilities are really set up for a day where they have an interview, a cocktail party, and a study group meeting all in the same building. They can navigate and transition from one role to another very easily.”
With two Chicago campuses, Booth enjoy another unexpected advantage as well. “We think being in the city is critically important,” Kole adds. “We have a lot of students who spend one day a week in private equity or do volunteer consulting as a way to learn through opportunities in this city. So students can book study rooms at Gleacher; anything they can do here, they can do in that space downtown too.”
When it comes to dining, most schools would be hard pressed to compete with Booth – at least where Gleacher is concerned. Within a few blocks, students can enjoy everything from The Purple Pig to Howells & Hood. The Harper Center is no slouch either. It includes a café run by Aramark, with selections ranging from a hot grill station to a deli bar. Nearby, there is also a high end coffee shop with fresh pastries and vegan dishes. In contrast, Anderson, MBAs are treated to il Tramezzino, a café best known for its scrumptious paninis. Both Anderson student lounges are equipped with coffee machines as well.
SUNSHINE VS. LAKESHORE
Jami Jesek Carman, Senior Associate Dean and Chief Operations Officer at UCLA Anderson
While neither school boasts an in-house workout facility, exercise facilities are nearby. At Anderson, the Wooden Center is just a three minute jaunt from class – not to mention a swimming pool that’s within 10 feet of one Anderson building. The school is also working to make the campus more accommodating to fitness-driven students. “With our great weather out here, we have a lot of people who bike, walk, or run to campus,” says Jesek Carman. “They have very long days, so we’ll be expanding shower and locker facilities over the next year to install those.”
The university gym is within 4-5 blocks of the Harper Center according to Kole. However, the school boasts an unexpected treat: an easy walk to the city’s famed lakeshore. “One of the huge attractions of the city of Chicago is its incredible lakefront. We have plenty of students and faculty who bike to school. The Lakeshore is a huge asset for us.”
Transportation also gets a thumbs up from students at both schools…for entirely different reasons. Anderson sits adjacent to two parking structures serving the Pauley Pavilion – with one of the structures slated to be connected to Marion Anderson Hall. In contrast, most students take the Metra (aka “The Centipede”) from downtown Chicago to Hyde Park, with a stop that’s just three blocks from the Harper Center. The remaining students, says Kole, take Uber or park near the Midway where parking is free.
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University of Chicago’s Hyde Park Campus
SCHOOLS HOLD SURPLUS SPACE TO ACCOMMODATE FUTURE GROWTH
The surrounding neighborhoods also add a certain ambiance to the programs. Kole compares the family feel of Hyde Park to New York City’s Upper West Side, a throwback of family-owned specialty shops, bookstores, eateries, and bakeries – a corridor that only recently accepted its first mini Target. On 59th Street, just a street down from Booth, many students gravitate to Doc Films, a film society that runs the Max Palevsky Cinema that plays classic films and rare documentaries. The area is also home to the Robie House, a U.S. historic landmark and embodiment of Franklin Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School architecture.
In contrast, UCLA is urban and the seat of West Los Angeles, just a five mile drive from Wilshire Boulevard and the Pacific Ocean. “We’re spoiled here,” admits Weiler. “We’re surrounded by Bel-Air to the north, Brentwood on one side and Beverly Hills on the other side, with Westwood to our south, four of the most high rent residential districts in the country. Our border to the north is Sunset Boulevard – but after that it is $10-$20 million dollar homes. Westwood is a hub of shopping, restaurants and activities that has the feel of a college town. There is literally a three mile loop around campus and UCLA is completely contained in that.”
Perhaps one reason why Booth and Anderson MBAs rave about the facilities is that neither school is content to rest on its laurels. Both take infrastructure – and the social and learning atmosphere it creates – very seriously. Guthrie, for one, is always on the lookout for keeping appearances current and student-friendly. “As the buildings age,” he says, “we have been very dedicated in keeping all the student spaces fresh-looking, whether it is replacing carpets or adapting to student needs like adding a lactation room and a non-gender bathroom.”
John Wooden Statue overlooking the Bruin Walk.
At the same time, Kole adds, the school maintains surplus space to accommodate future programming needs. For example, the school recently allocated additional space for the Rustandy Center for Social Innovation, to accommodate increasing interest in the social sector and issues related to equality and access. The increasing popularity of the Kilts Center (Marketing) and the CFO Forum has also required further investments in space.
HARPER CENTER DESIGN STANDS THE TEST OF TIME
Anderson is facing similar demands – and following Booth’s blueprint. The program plans to move departments like student affairs, career services, and admissions into the new Marion Anderson Hall – which affords the opportunity to backfill spaces for their growing centers. “We always seem to be adding more centers and larger components to them,” Jesek Carman confesses. “We want to make room for new programs so we can capture what is in the marketplace that has not been addressed. It is going to provide an opportunity to update our current complex as best we can and make opportunities for future students.”
In other words, the Anderson campus, like business in general, is constantly re-inventing itself to re-engineer the student experience based on market changes, best practices, and student demands. “Our current complex was built in 1995,” Jesek Carman adds. “The architect had a different business culture in mind when they built the complex. There were a lot of tiny rooms, walls and sectional parts of the facility. In recent years, we’ve been consistently tearing down walls, making more open and collaborative spaces, and a lot of this has been drive by students in terms of what they need and how they function.”
In the process, Anderson is revamping the current complex, adding glass and removing brick, to offer a consistent look that augments the school’s bucolic charm. In the end, buildings serve people. That is the genius behind the Harper Center, says Kole, who believes the strategy behind the building’s layout only grows more cogent after 14 years.
“The team that designed the internal space really understood the life of the student,” she asserts. “The ability to flow through the school in different roles during the day – working by yourself, collaborating with others, being in the classroom, grabbing an expresso – that can all happen so easy in this space.”
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