Spring Break
Humanities center to be built with $20M donation
by Miranda Neubauer
Senior Writer
News | 12/4/07
Posted online at 10:52 PM EST on 12/3/07
/ Last updated at 11:16 PM EST on 12/3/07
The University will begin construction on its new humanities building in Rabb Academic Quad, a project made possible through a $20 million grant by the Mandel Foundation, during the spring of 2009, Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe said.
The Mandel Center for the Humanities is expected to be complete in the summer or fall of 2010, Jaffe said. The Cleveland-based Mandel foundation focuses its philanthropic efforts on leadership, management of nonprofits, higher education, Jewish education and continuity and urban neighborhood renewal, according to its Web site.
The large gift, Jaffe said, will go toward phase one of the University's larger plan to renew Rabb. Brandeis intends to construct the new, curved building between Schiffman and Rabb as part of the first phase, Jaffe said.
A feasibility study estimated the cost of the entire plan to be over $80 million, Jaffe said. N. Michael McKinnell of the firm Kollmann, McKinnell & Wood Architects is the architect for the project.
The Mandel Center for Jewish Education, established with the support of the same foundation in 2002, will move to the new Center from its current location in the Abraham Shapiro complex, Jaffe said.
"Up until now, we didn't have the resources to do anything with the north end of the campus from an academic perspective," said Jaffe, noting that the buildings in the quad date from the 1960s and 1970s.
"This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for us to design a building to do what we want it to do," he said. "It's really a blank slate, mostly, which we can design to really foster the large mission of the school of humanities … and the social sciences."
In his fall letter to the Brandeis community, University President Jehuda Reinharz described the donation as one of the "largest foundation grants ever in support of the humanities."
According to Jaffe, Reinharz and Morton L. Mandel had discussed the possibility of "a transformative gift to the institution" by his foundation.
The Mandel Center for the Humanities is expected to be complete in the summer or fall of 2010, Jaffe said. The Cleveland-based Mandel foundation focuses its philanthropic efforts on leadership, management of nonprofits, higher education, Jewish education and continuity and urban neighborhood renewal, according to its Web site.
The large gift, Jaffe said, will go toward phase one of the University's larger plan to renew Rabb. Brandeis intends to construct the new, curved building between Schiffman and Rabb as part of the first phase, Jaffe said.
A feasibility study estimated the cost of the entire plan to be over $80 million, Jaffe said. N. Michael McKinnell of the firm Kollmann, McKinnell & Wood Architects is the architect for the project.
The Mandel Center for Jewish Education, established with the support of the same foundation in 2002, will move to the new Center from its current location in the Abraham Shapiro complex, Jaffe said.
"Up until now, we didn't have the resources to do anything with the north end of the campus from an academic perspective," said Jaffe, noting that the buildings in the quad date from the 1960s and 1970s.
"This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for us to design a building to do what we want it to do," he said. "It's really a blank slate, mostly, which we can design to really foster the large mission of the school of humanities … and the social sciences."
In his fall letter to the Brandeis community, University President Jehuda Reinharz described the donation as one of the "largest foundation grants ever in support of the humanities."
According to Jaffe, Reinharz and Morton L. Mandel had discussed the possibility of "a transformative gift to the institution" by his foundation.
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