Builtbusinessfor

LSU unveils one of the best business school facilities in the United States.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO THE GREATER BATON ROUGE BUSINESS REPORT

Lafayette

Baton Rouge

New Orleans

www.lemoinecompany.com

W E A R E T H E L E M O I N E C O M P A N Y .

When considering the construction industry, many think of brick and mortar, concrete and steel. We think about people. Our business is about people: The people we work for. The people we work with. The people in the communities where we live.

A commitment to the best possible human relationships helps us deliver the best possible built results. Our word is our bond. Our work is our résumé. And we have a commitment to safe operations that protects our employees, subcontractors and clients.

We know the delivery of our mission occurs one task at a time, one person at a time, at the point of service. Not just in my office. Sometimes not in an office at all. By people we hire, train and trust to represent the interest of our clients and partners, wherever and whenever they come into contact, each day in every way.

THE LEMOINE COMPANY is raising the bar and setting new standards: In our expectations of ourselves; in our clients’ expectations of us; in the built product we deliver. We would like to congratulate Dean Jones and the E. J. Ourso College of Business and thank them for granting us the opportunity to serve as General Contractor for the LSU Business Education Complex.

Leonard K. Lemoine

President / CEO

“ T O T H I N K T H A T T H E L E M O I N E C O M P A N Y W I L L A L L B U T H A V E T H I S W O R K C O M P L E T E D I N L E SS T H A N T W O Y E A R S

I S E X T R A O R D I N A R Y . ” D E A N E L I J O N E S

L S U E . J . O U R S O C O L L E G E O F B U S I N E S S

2

3

The LSU E. J. Ourso College of Busi-ness cut the ribbon March 2 on its cutting-edge new home, the Business

Education Complex. Funded as a private-public partnership between the college and the state of Louisiana, the BEC will open for classes to students this fall. Steve Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Me-dia, served as keynote speaker for the event and lauded the completion of the BEC as an opportunity for the future.

“In short, the past does not mat-ter,” Forbes said. “People are looking at things with new eyes.”

Forbes said that as the global economy turns around, Louisiana should be one of the places business and industry look to capitalize. The BEC will be a large part of that, he said.

For LSU students and faculty who have spent years hunkered down in the building shared by the colleges of engineering and business, their first experiences in the new Business Education Complex might just take their breath away.

In place of traditional classrooms lining gray halls, students will find glass-walled spaces flooded with natural light. They’ll see separate graduate and undergraduate wings arranged in rows of two-story, gabled pavilions along either side of a large court-yard. At one end of the courtyard they’ll find a comfortable 300-seat auditorium, and at the other, the crown jewel of the complex—a gleaming rotunda with an exterior marked by tiers of arches.

With fritted glass, metal, and stone fea-tures cast against rows of gabled roofs and tiered arches, the complex is an architectur-ally impressive blend of old and new. From a functional standpoint, it is designed for 21st century business education.

Dale Songy, of Coleman Partners Archi-tects in Baton Rouge, says the design aims to put the E. J. Ourso College of Business at the forefront of business education while retaining stylistic links to the traditions of

LSU. Glass surfaces and bronze tile accents throughout the complex re-semble the materials seen across the Italian Renaissance-style campus.

“But what’s really cool is that the college of business is going to have its own image and identity,” Songy said.

Officials and planners spent months interviewing architectural firms that have experience in de-signing business education centers before settling on Princeton, N.J.-based ikon.5, with Coleman as a joint venture partner. ikon.5’s portfolio includes the Johnson Graduate

Built for businessBEC ribbon-cutting opens next chapter for Louisiana business education.

BEC AT A GLANCEGroundbreaking: March 19, 2010

Grand opening: March 2, 2012

Cost: $56 million

Funding: Private/public partnership

Size: 156,000 square feet

Key features: 300-seat auditorium, state-of-the-art technology, rotunda with student gathering area known as the Commons, SMART Lab for securities trading training, 22 theater-style classrooms outfitted with the latest audio-visual equipment

fACiLiTiEs

PHOTOS By AARON HOGAN, EyE wANDER PHOTO

Issue Date: LSU BEC Ad proof #1• Please respond by e-mail or fax with your approval or minor revisions. • Ad will run as is unless approval or final revisions are received by the close of business today. • Additional revisions must be requested and may be subject to production fees.

Carefully check this ad for: CORRECT ADDRESS • CORRECT PHONE NUMBER • ANY TYPOSThis ad design © Louisiana Business, Inc. 2011. All rights reserved. Phone 225-928-1700 • Fax 225-926-1329

7520 Perkins Rd, Suite 290Baton Rouge, LA 70808

www.gwsengineering.com

GWS is proud to be a part of the new Business

Education Complex project.

Civil Municipal Land Surveying

Since 1994

Phone: 225-769-1788Fax: 225-769-1954

GEAUX TIGERS!

4

School of Management at Cornell University; the Center for Executive Education at South-ern Methodist University; and the Columbia University Business School.

Coleman Partners’ previous work for LSU includes designing the Energy, Coast & En-vironment Building and renovations to the Swine Palace Theatre.

Joseph Tattoni, a principal at ikon.5, says that university representatives and alumni design liaison Roger Ogden were clear about their priorities for the business complex.

“They challenged us to make this design an outward expression that LSU’s college of business is the foremost economic generator for Louisiana and the Gulf South,” Tattoni said.

The design that evolved through exten-sive discussions with faculty, alumni and administrators is one that reflects modern business modes and training, Tattoni says. He describes it as “a contemporary village of business.”

The complex encompasses 156,000 square feet of Wi-Fi-enabled learning and research environments—triple LSU’s current business education space. It includes 22 tiered, the-ater-style classrooms outfitted with the latest audio-visual equipment and 15 smaller rooms for seminars and group breakouts.

A new SMART Lab—a 40-person, glass-walled training room for securities trading training that’s twice the size of the college’s current training floor—features a dozen Bloomberg financial data terminals and walls lined with securities trading monitors.

Tattoni describes the marble-floored rotunda as “the intellectual hub” of the com-plex. In it, a 3,500-square-foot central atrium called the Commons offers leisure and study space, areas for group meetings, and a CC’s Community Coffee House.

Upper floors of the rotunda hold a recruit-ing lounge and rooms where students can prepare for job interviews using video equip-ment. Also housed there are the LSU Ste-phenson Entrepreneurship Institute, the LSU Stephenson Disaster Management Institute, the LSU Center for Internal Auditing, and the LSU Division of Economic Development, as well as administrative offices.

Associate Professor Hettie Richardson says that while business faculty will appreci-ate the new space, the students are the ones who will benefit most from the new complex. “It is much more student-friendly than our current building is,” she says.

The co-chair of the Rucks Department of Management, Richardson says modern busi-ness education mimics how business is done these days, which means it emphasizes team projects and collaborative work.

The new complex is tailor-made for such activity. “It will make a difference in terms of how we teach,” she says. b

5

When thousands of college students step forward to receive diplomas on graduation day, a university is

not only sending the fruits of its educational efforts into society, it is also sewing the seeds of reciprocal support. The benefits are clear on LSU’s campus, where the striking new Business Education Complex has taken shape next to the current home of the E. J. Ourso College of Business.

The structures are designed to carry LSU’s business education mission far into the future, but they also represent a legacy that took root years ago.

James E. “Jimmy” Maurin was part of a core group of LSU alumni who persisted through a decade of challenges—including changes in administration, a national eco-nomic downturn, and a history-making natu-ral disaster—to fulfill the promise of a new college of business facility. Today, as the col-lege prepares to occupy its 156,000-square-foot home, Maurin is enjoying the view.

“It’s a spectacular project, and we’re going to deliver it on time and on schedule,” he says. “With this new platform, we’re going to be able to raise our standards for both busi-ness faculty and students.”

ChooSinG a leGaCyIt was more than 30 years ago that Mau-

rin co-founded the commercial real estate company that later became Stirling Proper-ties with his former Kappa Sigma Fraternity buddy Roger H. Ogden. Both men went on to build big names in regional and national business circles. Through much of their adult lives, both also shared their good fortune with LSU. Among other projects, they con-tributed seed funding for the program that became the LSU Stephenson Entrepreneur-ship Institute, named for another college friend, Emmet Stephenson, and his wife Toni.

Maurin was aware that the university had previously received a large donation from Bank One, Louisiana—then headed by LSU alumnus G. Lee Griffin—to begin improving the college of business. But planning for the project had stalled. “I asked (then-university Chancellor) Mark Emmert to let me get in-volved,” he says.

Soon Maurin was forming a team to break through the logjam. Naturally, he turned again to his old friend.

Ogden, by then well known as a hotel and office building developer, had chaired the LSU Board of Supervisors during a period

when the board identified a south campus site for relocating the college of business away from the building it had shared since 1978 with the engineering college.

“I saw that creating a new college of busi-ness would make both business and engi-neering stronger,” Ogden recalls. “If we built a new business complex, that would free up Patrick F. Taylor Hall to be renovated to serve the College of Engineering.”

Joining Maurin and Ogden in this new effort was William S. “Bill” Slaughter III, another college of business alumnus and former president of the Dean’s Advisory Council. Now the owner of management consulting firm SSA Consultants LLC and a part-time professor in the LSU Flores MBA Program, Slaughter signed on with Maurin as co-chairman of the oversight committee and a chief fundraiser for the project. Ogden took on oversight of the design and construction.

not juSt another BuildinGOgden says the group’s vision for the proj-

ect arose from Louisiana’s priorities. “What we as a state need is more job creators,” he says. “When you look across the country at other models that have succeeded, those

From vision to realityHow alumni led the charge for a new ‘campus within a campus.’

The E. J. Ourso College of Business held the Business Education Complex’s groundbreaking March 19, 2010.

dEvELopmENT

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

P&N.ad.pdf 1 3/9/12 11:14 AM

6

states invested significantly in their flagship universities and in higher education.”

The university should be “the engine that will pull the state,” Ogden says. For that to happen, he says, “We need to have a nation-ally significant public business school.”

As the 16-member oversight team laid its plans, a theme that emerged was the desire to create something more than a single build-ing to house the E. J. Ourso College. It was clear that both the business and engineering schools had outgrown Patrick F. Taylor Hall, formerly known as the Center for Engineer-ing and Business Administration, or CEBA. But simply separating the two colleges didn’t seem enough.

What began to take shape was the idea of creating a “campus within a campus” for the college of business—a collection of structures that would serve the evolving needs of busi-ness education.

Slaughter says that as the vision of a busi-ness education complex with its own quad-rangle, classrooms, and common spaces be-gan to gel, some people questioned whether the goals were too ambitious. Preliminary estimates put the cost of the project at $60 million, and everyone knew that raising it would be tough. But the team’s leaders were not inclined to back off.

Creative FinanCinGAs the team grappled with the realities of

financing the project—including the fact that

obtaining funds through the state’s capital outlay program can take a decade or more—they had a breakthrough.

“We realized that the project would never happen if we relied just on state money,” Maurin says. “So we came up with the notion that if we raised half the money privately, maybe the state would match it.”

They took the idea to then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who embraced the concept and expe-dited the request for $30 million in a capital outlay bill. When Bobby Jindal later suc-

ceeded Blanco, he reaffirmed the administra-tion’s support.

Slaughter believes the public-private cost sharing employed on this project could become a common means of financing big improvements in an era of increasingly tight money. “We hope that other colleges in the LSU system and maybe other universities in the state can use a similar process,” he says.

While the public-private financing idea for the college of business had a green light, the bulk of the fundraising still loomed. Slaugh-ter and Maurin continued the drive in the face of hurdles that included the massive dis-ruption caused by Hurricane Katrina, which Maurin says extended the project’s timeline by as much as two years. The financial col-lapse on Wall Street and a national economic downturn added to the challenge.

“It was difficult,” Slaughter says, but he adds: “The timing worked in our favor—the building cost actually went down over that period.”

LSU business alumnus Rick Wolfert says the results were worth the wait. “To be hon-est, it has far exceeded my expectations,” he says of the new complex.

“Now we’ve really got a story to tell and a very attractive venue,” Wolfert said of the new business complex. “It is the foundation of what it takes to attract top faculty and top students, and it’s going to create a lot of en-ergy and enthusiasm around business educa-tion at LSU.” b

Bill Slaughter (left), Roger Ogden (center), and Jimmy Maurin were key members of a core group of alumni who persisted through a decade of challenges to fulfill the promise of a new college of business facility.

www.SellingASAP.com

Place your order today!

Issu

e Da

te: L

SU B

EC A

d pr

oof #

1•

Plea

se re

spon

d by

e-m

ail o

r fax

with

your

app

rova

l or m

inor

revi

sion

s.

• Ad

will

run

as is

unl

ess

appr

oval

or fi

nal r

evis

ions

are

rece

ived

by t

he c

lose

of b

usin

ess

toda

y.

• Ad

ditio

nal r

evis

ions

mus

t be

requ

este

d an

d m

ay b

e su

bjec

t to

prod

uctio

n fe

es.

Care

fully

che

ck th

is a

d fo

r: CO

RREC

T AD

DRES

S •

CORR

ECT

PHON

E N

UM

BER

• AN

Y TY

POS

This

ad

desi

gn ©

Lou

isia

na B

usin

ess,

Inc.

201

1. A

ll rig

hts

rese

rved

. Pho

ne 2

25-9

28-1

700

• Fa

x 225

-926

-132

9

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

www.lsu.press.orgwww.amazon.com

www.barnesandnoble.com

7

Attracting the cream of the crop in faculty, students, and staff is one of a college administrator’s biggest chal-

lenges, and cutting-edge facilities can be an important recruiting tool.

“We’ve got a wonderful new facility that will help us attract the best,” says LSU Chan-cellor Michael Martin.

Having a sophisticated, stand-alone busi-ness school on the LSU campus raises the bar for faculty and students by creating an educational environment that turns heads, Martin says. Not only will prospective stu-dents find it appealing, but “it will enhance the experience those students have here, so when they go out the door, they are ready to lead.”

The E. J. Ourso College of Business has gradually risen in the ranks of business schools around the country. Bloomberg Busi-nessweek recently placed the undergraduate program at No. 55 among public institutions and No. 103 overall, up one spot in both cat-egories from the previous year. Meanwhile, U.S. News & World Report ranked the LSU Flores MBA Program at No. 47 among public institutions and No. 89 overall in its 2012 edi-tion of “America’s Best Graduate Schools.”

Business Dean Eli Jones says the quality of the educational facilities is among the criteria considered in many rankings, and he expects LSU’s newest addition will give the college a further boost.

A goal of the college is to become more nationally prominent, Jones says, and the new facilities can help in priority areas, such

as globalization. The school is focusing on educational exchanges with Brazil, India, and China, and guest speakers from those countries are instrumental in teaching local students about doing business abroad.

The teleconferencing capabilities built into the new campus facilities will make such exchanges easier and more effective, Jones says. “We’ll be able to present speakers in high definition, so students can clearly see and speak with executives from abroad.”

But in the final assessment, the greatest return on investment in business education could accrue to Louisiana. The administra-tors and alumni involved in planning and completing the new business complex emphasize that their ultimate goal is to fuel economic growth in the surrounding region. Recently, the LSU Stephenson Entrepre-neurship Institute ramped up that effort by partnering with Louisiana Economic Devel-opment to create an economic development certification program at LSU.

Louisiana Economic Development Secre-tary and LSU alumnus Stephen Moret is en-thusiastic about the prospects of the partner-ship. “With the generous support of private donors and matching state funds committed by Governor Jindal, LSU now has one of the best business school facilities in the U.S.,” he says.

The school will not only raise the profile of LSU’s business education programs, he adds, it will also help “promote Louisiana as a new frontier for business opportunity.” b

Jones: BEC will help college gain national prominence.

raising the barNew home boosts school’s appeal and competitiveness.

impACT

8417 Kelwood AvenueBaton Rouge, LA 70806-4806

Email: office@ast-engineers.com

Phone: 225/926-5600Fax: 225/926-5620

www.ast-engineers.com

Congratulations to the LSU College of Business.

We are proud to be a part of this great achievement.

• Landscapearchitects

• Landscapecontractors

• irrigationcontractors

• re-Vegetation

(225)752-6137office(225)752-6130fax

Issu

e Da

te: L

SU B

EC A

d pr

oof #

2•

Plea

se re

spon

d by

e-m

ail o

r fax

with

your

app

rova

l or m

inor

revi

sion

s.

• Ad

will

run

as is

unl

ess

appr

oval

or fi

nal r

evis

ions

are

rece

ived

by t

he c

lose

of b

usin

ess

toda

y.

• Ad

ditio

nal r

evis

ions

mus

t be

requ

este

d an

d m

ay b

e su

bjec

t to

prod

uctio

n fe

es.

Care

fully

che

ck th

is a

d fo

r: CO

RREC

T AD

DRES

S •

CORR

ECT

PHON

E N

UM

BER

• AN

Y TY

POS

This

ad

desi

gn ©

Lou

isia

na B

usin

ess,

Inc.

201

1. A

ll rig

hts

rese

rved

. Pho

ne 2

25-9

28-1

700

• Fa

x 225

-926

-132

9

Baton Rouge

LandscapeTurf and

Over 30 years of making Baton Rouge beautiful!