The UT Knoxville campus community is invited to tour the new James A. Haslam II Business Building on Tuesday, Jan. 6, a day before the state-of-the-art facility opens for spring semester classes.
An open house, featuring building tours and technology demonstrations, will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Light refreshments will be served, and a drawing for giveaways will be held.
Free parking for open house guests will be available in the University Center Parking Garage. Passengers can be dropped off at the building’s Volunteer Boulevard entrance.
The new six-floor, 174,000-square-foot building at the corner of Andy Holt Avenue and Volunteer Boulevard houses 34 classrooms; more than 75 offices for staff and administration; 35 team and presentation rooms; a technology center; an investments center; and a spectacular atrium for gatherings of students, faculty, corporate visitors, alumni and friends. Construction on the building began in November 2005, and the project cost about $46 million. It was funded by public and private dollars.
The new building was constructed on the site of the former Glocker Business Administration Building, and the façade of that building was preserved as part of the new structure. A wing of the new building was named the Glocker Wing as a tribute to Theodore Wesley Glocker Sr., the first dean of the college.
The state-of-the-art building is named after Jim Haslam, founder and chairman of the board of Pilot Travel Centers LLC and chairman of the board and president of Pilot Corp.
An alumnus of the college, Haslam and his family have been generous supporters of the university and the college. Haslam and his wife, Natalie, both 1952 graduates, have donated $7.5 million to the College of Business Administration. The money was part of a $38.2 million gift to UT.