Goody Clancy was selected by Harvard Business School to design the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center, a 90,000 s/f building that will serve as a new gateway for the 10,000 students who attend classes each year in the Business School's executive education program. The Center will be designed as a bustling hub of social and academic life on campus, providing classrooms, dining and meeting spaces to foster frequent interaction and collaboration among MBA students, faculty, doctoral candidates and executive education students.
"Harvard Business School has a longstanding commitment to executive education, and the new Chao Center will heighten this commitment by integrating the learning, living and socializing experience for all students," said Roger Goldstein, principal of Goody Clancy. "We are thrilled to be selected to design this new building, in a location that will bridge the gap between the oldest and newest areas of campus."
Chao Center will be built on a site in the northeast corner of the historic McKim Mead and White campus where Kresge Hall now stands, shaping a new quadrangle with Tata Hall. The new building will be named after Ruth Mulan Chu Chao, wife of James Si-Cheng Chao and the mother of six daughters, four of whom graduated from the Business School. The Chao family recently made a $40 million gift to Harvard University and Harvard Business School in honor of the life and legacy of the late Ms. Chao. The gift was received during the 50th anniversary celebration of women graduating from Harvard's full-time MBA program, and during the 375th anniversary of Harvard University. Among the Chao family's daughters is former secretary of labor Elaine Chao, who served under George W. Bush and was the first Asian Pacific American to be appointed to a U.S. Cabinet. Chao received her M.B.A. from Harvard in 1979.