The 179,000 square feet Rafik B. Hariri Building is the new home of McDonough School of Business. It will house all the school’s business education programs. Boston-based architectural firm Goody Clancy worked in association with Whiting-Turner Contracting Company to create this environment-friendly building.
Located on the Georgetown University campus, the Rafik B. Hariri Building features 15 classrooms, 34 breakout rooms, 15 conference rooms, 11 interview rooms, a 400-seat auditorium, two large lounges, and 120 faculty offices. Student space is replete with data ports, flat-screen monitors and video-conferencing capabilities, allowing for global connectivity.
The abundant aesthetics of the building include a blend of stone masonry and steel on the south elevation, reminiscent of the university’s original architecture, combined with a panoramic glass pavilion on the east elevation. Together, these designs symbolize the mix of traditional business foundations and forethought apparent in the education offered at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. A soaring glass atrium serves as the core new building, providing literal transparency of the students’ education.
The building features the use of an efficient lighting system expected to provide 15% in energy savings, water-efficient plumbing and landscaping, and recycled materials from local companies. The school plans to apply for US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.
The Rafik B. Hariri Building has already received acclaim among the construction industry, receiving several Craftsmanship Awards from the Washington Business Congress. The awards have honored its slate and copper roofing, exterior stone masonry work, and glass fiber reinforced gypsum panels rotunda’s dome ceiling and V-shaped panels in the auditorium ceiling.
Major gifts from alumni funded the design and construction of the $82.5 million facility. The building is named in memory of the late Rafik B. Hariri, a two-time prime minister of Lebanon, noted philanthropist and ardent advocate of education. Saad Hariri, the son of Rafik B. Hariri has donated the money for the building. He is the newly designated prime minister of Lebanon and a 1992 alumnus of the McDonough School of Business.
