DePaul University Breaks Ground on New Home for Driehaus College of Business

DePaul University broke ground this week on a new 100,000-square-foot building for its Driehaus College of Business, an $80 million project that university officials say will finally give the school's largest college a facility that matches its enrollment in downtown Chicago.

The current business school building, constructed decades ago, has struggled to accommodate a student population that has grown substantially over the past ten years, with several departments now operating out of temporary space in converted classrooms near the Loop campus. The new building will include dedicated trading-room simulation space for finance students, expanded space for the school's real estate and business analytics programs, and a new career services suite.

"Our enrollment has grown, but our building stayed the same size, and that's created real bottlenecks for students trying to get into required courses," said the dean of the Driehaus College of Business. "This building is designed around how business education actually works now, with a lot more emphasis on data and analytics than when the old building went up."

The project is funded through a combination of university capital reserves and roughly $18 million in donations from alumni and regional employers, including several Chicago-area financial services and insurance firms that recruit heavily from DePaul's business programs.

University officials said the building is expected to open in about two years, with construction phased to avoid disrupting current class schedules. DePaul's business school currently enrolls more than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it one of the largest programs in the city.