Expansion Tunnel System

Huntsman Hall Getting Connected to Campus – Literally

The first construction project for the Huntsman Hall addition will be to extend the existing campus underground utility tunnels. The tunnels are 10 feet by 10 feet and built out of concrete. They are 15 feet underground and stable enough to have vehicles drive over them. In fact, these utility tunnels look a lot like the tunnels that provide access to the parking lots across the highway (see picture below). The tunnels carry campus-wide steam, chilled water, network and data wiring, and miscellaneous piping and electrical services.

Parking lot tunnel under the highway

In 2000, the facilities department built a mile long tunnel system to connect the utilities from the central plant throughout campus. These first underground tunnels were built along the perimeter of the quad. This piping allows the utilities from the central energy plant by the Spectrum, to reach all over campus. The system will be extended approximately 300 feet east to connect to the Eccles Business Building as well as Huntsman Hall.

There are two main advantages of being connected to the tunnel expansion system: it’s more reliable, and it is more economical over time. There is a high initial investment required for both the cost of building the steam plant, as well as building the tunnel system, but the running costs are much lower. Once a building is connected to the system, there are rarely any utility problems.


We are anxiously awaiting construction to start in order to be completed in August before Fall Semester starts.

Ken Snyder

A room full of people are smitten by a design

I promised you last week that I’d give you a peek at a new design concept that changed the way we have been envisioning what Huntsman Hall might look like. Hey, you went ahead and looked at the picture already, didn’t you?

Well, what do you think? If you were like those of us who were presented with this preliminary design concept last week, you liked it immediately. Of course, we got to see a three-dimensional model but this image should give you a sense for the unusual, innovative design that we fell in love with. We unanimously voted to go in this direction. We were smitten by this concept.

The new building, Huntsman Hall, as proposed, would be a functional, iconic building that would integrate well with the George S. Eccles Business Building. The first and second floors, which would be mainly classrooms and student meeting rooms, would offer great views of Cache Valley. The third floor will be mainly office space.

The sweeping design will take up where Lund Hall now sits and will extend into the construction staging area on the west side of the business building, and will wrap around the east side of the building to near Moen Hall.

We think it is a phenomenal concept that will look just plain cool. This initial concept includes two large two-story entry ways – one from the side of building that faces Route 89, and one on the northwest side of the building that will offer access to both the George S. Eccles Business Building and Huntsman Hall. It will connect the old to the new buildings in two places and create a nice open courtyard area, which will be sheltered from the wind, between the two buildings.

This is just a preliminary design concept, so the design may change as we work out details. I will share with you more images as the architectural renderings begin to take shape. But isn’t it cool?

- Ken Snyder

Experimental classroom is cool but not yet the future

BUS 318, which for the last 18 months has been our
"experimental classroom"

Even though I have been writing about the programming process for just the past few weeks, the process actually started a long time ago – 18 months ago to be precise. That was when we formed the advisory team to start working on our recommendations for classrooms for the new building.

I asked for volunteers from the faculty of the school and got a tremendous response. Several senior professors volunteered to help. We also have some junior professors on the team who are very in tune with what can be done with modern technology in the classroom. We have at least one professor from every department. In other words, we have great representation from across the school.

We took one of our “worst” classrooms (as determined by the faculty) and decided to completely redo it. We wanted to test all sorts of different things in this classroom. So, we put in the following features:

Movable tables and chairs

• Portable furniture – including portable chairs and tables – so the professor can easily re-configure the class at a moment’s notice.

• Four projectors – so the professor and/or students can project different things at the same time.

• An experimental white board known as an Egan board which is supposed to work well both as marking surface and as a projection surface.

• White boards on the threeother walls in the room so there are white boards on all four walls.

Four projectors

• An in-ceiling, document camera.

• We buried the classroom technology in the corner of the room, out of the way, and then built a portable podium that connected to the technology only through a WiFi connection.

We worked with the campus classroom scheduling people to make sure that the faculty members on the advisory team were assigned to teach in the experimental classroom this past academic year.

Believe it or not, not all of these experimental items worked well. Some big hits include the portable furniture, multiple projectors (although four may be too many), white boards on all four walls, the fact that we moved the technology off to the side, and the portable WiFi podium.

We also experienced some problems: the students complained that the portable chairs were uncomfortable, the Egan board didn’t work well as either a marking surface or a projection surface – and it got bubbles on the surface, and the document camera failed to perform up to specifications.

Thanks to the faculty members on this advisory team who researched features and then worked through all the problems. We now have a real good idea of what we want to put into the classrooms in the new building.

- Ken Snyder

A shared vision is born

Ken Snyder

Last week representatives from all the groups involved in planning our new building got together for what I will call a “visioning meeting.” We talked about the things we want to be sure this new building will do for the school. We created a comprehensive list of our “vision.”

• It’s more important to invest time to carefully assess the needs of our students and to design the building properly than it is for us to work on an accelerated design and construction schedule.

• We’d prefer a smaller well-designed building to a larger one that fails to meet our needs.

• The building should have an open feel and design that helps create a sense of community.

• We want to let the sun shine in. The design should take full advantage of natural lighting.

• It should be designed to best meet our student’s needs. We want to keep that idea foremost in our planning.

• We need to have more student-centric places available.

• We want to take advantage of the opportunity to build an iconic structure.

• Huntsman Hall needs to fit among the other buildings on campus so that it will contribute, not detract, from what makes the Utah State University campus remarkable.

• The building should effectively connect with and integrate into the existing George S. Eccles Business Building so that they feel like one complex.

• We are becoming a top-tier business school and we want to be sure our building reflects that.

• The building should be a recruiting tool to attract faculty members and new students. It should entice people to come join us.

• The design should promote collaboration between students, faculty and staff. It should feel inviting to the local, state and world leaders who will come to visit and meet with our students.

• The design should take advantage of the latest technology and be flexible to adapt to developments in the future.

• The design should support our “global vision” pillar and invite students to explore how they can “change the world.”

We realize this is a preliminary list and that it may change, but we think we are off to a good start.

- Ken Snyder

What are the reasons for the new building?

After my blog posted last week, one of our students asked the question, “What are the reasons for the new building?” This question made me realize that maybe we have not done an adequate job of explaining why we need a new building. The simple answer is that we are out of space. All of our existing classrooms and offices are being used at near full capacity. Personally, I am OK to move classes outside since it is so nice here in Logan year-round – but my perspective is a bit skewed due to my 10 years of living in Minnesota (also known as the “frozen north.”)

Let me share some of the key data points:

1) In the past five years, student enrollment on campus has grown from about 1,600 students to more than 2,100 students.

Ken Snyder

2) To accommodate the increasing demand from students, we have added classes and, of course, faculty. Every faculty office in the current building is filled. We have 13 business school faculty and staff that are in offices outside of our current building. We would like them to be with us in the same building. If nothing else, it will reduce the number of times we have to walk across campus in sub-zero temperatures.

3) Some of the office space shortage is due to added staff to help run programs. In the past five years, we have added staff to run programs in global engagement, entrepreneurship, the Huntsman Scholar program, internships, career acceleration, etc. These programs have greatly enhanced the experiential education opportunities of our students. There was no space planned for these types of functions in the original design of our current building.

4) We are short on classrooms both within our building and on campus in general. We have had to move several classes to a 7:00 a.m. start time, and several others to late afternoon and evening simply because of the lack of classrooms. We are quickly running out of options; we thought a new building is a better option than having classes start right as Letterman and Leno give their opening monologues.

It should be noted that most of the money for the new building is coming from generous donors who understand our current space limitations. It should also be noted that none of the money for the new building is coming from student tuition.

Ken Snyder

Ideas begin to shape new building

Ken Snyder

The new building is starting to take shape even though we haven’t even had the groundbreaking yet.

In my last blog I asked students, faculty and alumni for their ideas on what we need to be including in our new building. Some suggestions came in the comment section and others were e-mailed directly to me. I was relieved to discover they all seemed to be thoughtful and reasonable suggestions.

Here are some comments regarding ideas that have come up:

The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence – Our internationally known Shingo Prize headquarters has not been located in our building for years. We envision it being an important part of the new building. But the solution has to be part of a greater consideration. The Shingo Prize is an example of a program that cuts across departments. We have announced our intent to form other “centers” that cut across departments, such as for global engagement, for entrepreneurship and for leadership. It is not clear to us what the long-term staffing needs of these programs will be.

A student lounge – A few years ago, a renovation project took out the dean’s offices and created a student lounge on the main floor that is in constant use for study, meetings, socializing and eating. It has become the best-used space in the building. There is a consensus that more student space like our current lounge is needed.

A café or coffee shop – This is on the list of things to be considered.

A Huntsman School of Business merchandise shop – This is on the list of things to be considered.

Water-bottle equipped drinking fountains – Good idea. We’ll make sure at least some fountains have this feature.

Faculty lounge – We’ve visited a number of business schools and some have a faculty lounge and some don’t. Often when there is such space set aside, it also serves as a meeting room or lunchroom. This is something we are still considering.

An open design – We have begun negotiations with a Salt Lake City firm, GSBS Architects, which would be teaming up with a Seattle firm, LMN Architects, to construct our new building. GSBS designed the Merrill-Cazier Library right here at Utah State University. The library has the type of open building space that takes advantage of natural light and lots of windows that we want in our new building.

This, of course, is only the beginning of the ideas we will be considering as we make thousands of decisions in the months to come. Thanks for the feedback. Feel free to share more ideas with me.

Ken Snyder

Now is the time to create a facility that will serve generations

Ken Snyder

The next step of our building process is deciding what’s going inside the new building. We call this “programing.” We need to figure out what must we do to “program” a facility that will not only serve today’s students but generations to come.

In the programming process, we need to decide questions like the following:

• Classrooms – How many tiered classrooms do we need? How many flat classrooms? How many 80 seat? How many 55 seat? How many 40 seat?
• How many meeting rooms should we have for our students to use?
• Should we have a business library? With books and magazines, or just electronic kiosks?
• Should we have a café? How about a food court? Should we have a coffee shop?
• What kind of student lounges should we have? Should we have both an undergraduate and a graduate student lounge?
• How many computer labs do we need?
• What types of classroom technologies should be standard in our classrooms?
• Do we need another auditorium that is centrally located for big events? Should it be bigger or smaller than the one we currently use in the Eccles building?
• Should we have a store that would carry official Huntsman merchandise?

I’d like to hear from you! What do you think? Have you been to another business school and seen something you think we should include in the new Huntsman Hall?

Ken Snyder

The good, the better and the best overcome headache during long meeting

Sometimes meetings can prove a headache. Unfortunately, last week I went to a long, long, long all-day meeting and I brought my headache with me. The meeting was to choose the architect to program and design our new building. Each firm was given the opportunity to make a presentation and we asked lots of questions. You might think that such an arduous meeting, coupled with a headache, would be just plain all around bad but actually, the meeting was really very good.

Ken Snyder

The architectural firms were well prepared and they all did a very nice job with their presentations. It was a case of good vs. better vs. best as opposed to good vs. bad. Despite the headache, it turned out to be an enjoyable and educational day. All of the final five were Utah firms that were partnering with other national firms that were experienced in designing business schools. While I think any of the five firms would have done excellent work, I think we picked the firm that will best meet our needs.

We selected a Salt Lake City firm, GSBS Architects, which is teaming up with a Seattle firm, LMN Architects. Just picking them, at this point, doesn’t mean, however, that they will be doing the work. We first must negotiate an agreement with them before we can proceed with the project.

LMN designed PACCAR Hall for the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. One thing you notice about PACCAR Hall is that it is designed to let in lots of natural light. When you consider that our building will overlook Cache Valley, it would make sense that a building be designed that would take advantage of the spectacular views our location will offer. You can take a look at PACCAR Hall, which I have toured, by watching the video below.

GSBS designed the Merrill-Cazier Library right here at Utah State University. It also designed the Gore School of Business at Westminster College.

Once we’ve negotiated an agreement, we can move ahead with the programming. That’s where the fun really starts.

Ken Snyder

e-Toberfest

What do bratwursts, Apple Beer, and entrepreneurship have in common? They are all items that were celebrated during e-Toberfest on the ninth floor of the Eccles Business Building this evening.

Students flooded the OC Tanner Lounge where they had access to unlimited food, beverages, and German cake—all for a $3 entrance fee.

“She did an amazing job organizing the whole event” e-Club President Paul Rossiter said speaking of the event planning e-Club Officer Bri Petersen did in preparation for the party. Petersen said that one of the main purposes of the party was to serve as a kick-off event for the upcoming Opportunity Quest competition. “Many of the students looked at this event as a chance to network with other student entrepreneurs, to get ideas and feedback as they work on their business plans in preparation for Opportunity Quest.”

Those who are interested in participating in Opportunity Quest can view more information about the event by clicking this link.

- Sterling Morris

I scream for ice cream!

The main floor of the business building is THE place to be this week. Students were filing out the doors before noon waiting for the Aggie ice cream to be brought out.

Amidst the shouts for strawberry or cookies and cream, there was a buzz of excitement surrounding neighboring tables. All week students have been representing different clubs and organizations at display tables in the lobby. If they haven't already had plenty of feedback at their stations, the attraction of ice cream definitely brought some action. Students were guessing the number of M&Ms in jars, buying game day T-shirts, and cheering for Utah State all outside the elevators of the Jon M. Huntsman School.

What a neat thing to go to a University where the united and rowdy school spirit USU is known for isn't just displayed at sporting events but in the halls of our buildings in between classes. Go Aggies!

Kick-Off Party and BBQ Party Rockin'

The Kick-Off Party and BBQ were both huge successes. The party started in the Student Lobby of the Business Building where a ton of students gathered around to see what prizes they won with their raffle tickets. The Huntsman School gave out a lot of great prizes including headphones, bags, and other cool accessories.

Along the way to the BBQ and Kalai concert, students could get free popcorn, cupcakes, Halloween candy, snow cones, and cotton candy.

The BBQ attracted a very large line of people. It stretched from Old Main to the bottom of Old Main Hill. I'd love to write more but I'm going to settle in for a great Kalai concert.

Here's a short slide show of additional photos from the party and BBQ:

- Sterling Morris

Party Hearty Guys and Gals

Who wants to party? I want to party. Party! Party! Party! Be there or be square. Monday, September 27, 5 p.m. in front of the George S. Eccles Business Building, stampede to Old Main Hill. Good food, friends and fun. See you then. - Mary Price