Law School Building The new John and Frances Angelos Law Center, projected to open in fall 2012, will transform our School of Law. Sited on the prominent corner of Mount Royal Avenue and North Charles Street, it will also serve as an architectural landmark for central Baltimore.
The Need. Since our current building was constructed in 1982, our law student enrollment has increased 28.9 percent. Our faculty and staff have more than doubled to meet the demands of a more individualized educational structure. Faculty members are literally working from offices that were built as closets. Students who work on the four prestigious law journals are relegated to space in the Athletic Center.
As early as 1990, an American Bar Association assessment of UB observed that “things are changing in legal education, and the Law School physical plant must keep up.” Currently ranked 76th on the list of 80 ABA-approved public law schools in square footage per student, UB has clearly outgrown its space.
The ABA observations came as no surprise. Despite our stellar programs and clinics, the UB School of Law has been hampered by a fractured physical presence. Academic classrooms, clinics and related activities are scattered. The new building will consolidate all programs and functions into a single facility that will promote a sense of cohesion while stimulating the cross-fertilization of ideas. Both internal quality and external rankings will improve.
A Signature Building. Well before an architectural design was approved, excitement about the new School of Law building was mounting. The Abell Foundation generously funded a design competition to attract national and international interest in the project, and the response was astounding. The Baltimore Sun described the five finalists as a “Who’s Who…with international reputations.”
After much consideration, the design selected comes from the German architecture firm of Behnisch Architekten of Stuttgart, in partnership with Baltimore’s award-winning firm of Ayers/Saint/Gross. The architect Stefan Behnisch was cited by President Bogomolny for his “forward-thinking… ideas about sustainable design and his creativity in responding to the evolving needs of higher education.” The new building will boast sustainable features that will qualify it for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification, the second highest national “green” rating.
The design concept, which includes a 12-story glass-clad building with interlocking elements, will be refined as architects have more in-depth conversations with UB. As Dean Closius noted, “The Behnisch team showed a real commitment to working with us to create a building that will meet our needs and be a unique addition to the city’s architectural landscape.”
Once vacated, our current building on Gordon Plaza will be adaptively reused to meet projected UB enrollment growth in the coming decade.
The Benefits. A new law school facility will yield countless benefits to UB and to Baltimore, including the following:
- Consolidate all School functions, including the clinics
- Enhance the School’s national reputation
- Improve student and faculty recruitment
- Support personalized education
- Add more flexible classrooms and moot court rooms
- Update communication and research technologies
- Designate space for client interviews
- Demonstrate sustainable design and ongoing “green” technologies
- Boost alumni pride and support
- Yield space for renovation and adaptive reuse
