University of Delaware Office of Public Relations The Messenger Vol. 5, No. 1/1995 Recognition: A Special Report $15 million gift from Gore family to fund new classroom building on UD Mall A gift of $15 million from a prominent Delaware family-one of the most significant gifts in the entire history of the University of Delaware-will support the construction of a new classroom building on the University's Mall in Newark. The gift from alumnus and trustee Robert W. Gore, alumna Sarah I. Gore and Genevieve W. Gore makes possible the first addition to the tree-lined heart of the campus since H. Rodney Sharp Laboratory was built in 1961-62. When President David P. Roselle announced the gift Aug. 8 at a ceremony on the Mall near the site of the new building, the audience of approximately 200 University faculty and staff gave the Gores a standing ovation. "This is truly a remarkable gift from the Gore family to the family of the University," Roselle said, "and it's fitting that the support be used to complete the campus core, as it was envisioned nearly a century ago. The Gores join the ranks of the University's most generous benefactors-H. Rodney Sharp, H. Fletcher Brown and P.S. du Pont-whose generosity is so much in evidence on this beautiful Mall. "It is a distinct pleasure for me to publicly thank the Gores for their continuing generosity to the University," he said. "The family's active interest and enthusiastic support over many years have had tremendous impact on the life of this University and have enhanced the lives of many of our students." Bob Gore, speaking on behalf of his mother, his wife and himself, said, "Today we are creating a vision. Our University leadership visualized an opportunity to enhance the future development and quality of education here at the University of Delaware through the building of a new, centrally located academic hall. Beyond the possibilities of improved teaching, ...they also recognized the important opportunity of adding to the beauty of the Mall, of adding a special building, one that is in total harmony with what is already here, yet one which could achieve its own character and could be unique in its own way.... "We want to congratulate the University leadership on the positive changes that are occurring here and the vision shown in this current project," he said. "The Gore family is pleased to be part of that today, and we find pleasure and satisfaction and excitement in being a part of the team that is helping make it happen." Gore said that he, Sally and his mother "all have a strong belief in the power of education and its ability to change people's lives in a positive way, so we feel that our gift will bear fruit for future generations.... "Our family has a long history of ties to the University," Gore said. "Forty-five years ago when my father's job was bringing our family to Delaware, my parents, Bill and Vieve, chose Newark as our home town primarily because of its proximity to the University of Delaware. They hoped there would be special opportunities for us in the kind of environment that a University can create, and indeed we feel they have been right." Gore also said the recruitment and selection of a "truly renowned architect" is especially "noteworthy and exciting." The architect, Allan Greenberg, is noted for his love of and expertise in classical architecture-the style of the other red brick buildings on the University Mall. He was recommended by the University's Visiting Committee on Architecture because committee members felt he could design a building that would blend in perfectly with existing structures at the heart of the campus. The committee, appointed by the Board of Trustees, is chaired by the architectural historian of the U.S. Capitol, Bill Allen, a 1972 graduate of the University. Allen, who introduced Greenberg at the ceremony, said, "Just being on this Mall has an effect on everyone-students and faculty and visitors....We understand-through the scale and proportion and the quality of materials and the quality of design-we understand intuitively that we are in a very special place." Allen said undertaking an addition to the Mall presents two challenges: To honor the legacies of the past and to "pass down to future generations something that will be an honor to our own age." Calling Greenberg "the very best practitioner" of classical architecture today, Allen said the architect was being asked "to build a building that will look like it has been here a long time...and yet be its own building, be assertive, be bold, be beautiful, be exquisitely detailed.... "We know that Allan [Greenberg], with his incredible talents for classical architecture, will be able to give something that our children and our grandchildren will look back on with the same kind of pride that we now look back on our ancestors who gave us this beautiful University," Allen said. "The challenge of designing a building within an historic district is one of the most exciting and most taxing that an architect faces today," Greenberg said. "Noble architecture and campus plans are most often created over time and by numerous architects. The Piazza di San Marco in Venice, the United States Capitol in Washington and Saint Peter's in Rome and the great campuses of Harvard, Oxford and Yale were all designed over time and represent the ideas of a succession of architects. "The new building at the University of Delaware is an opportunity to talk across time to the architects who have ennobled this Mall and to understand the importance the University has attached to its architecture in the past and now," Greenberg said. "This is an exciting architectural opportunity to address present needs and to prepare for the future, while finding the optimal balance between current circumstances on the one hand and enduring human values on the other," he said. University Provost Mel Schiavelli said the new building will significantly enhance the University with classrooms that support the latest in instructional technologies. "Many of our existing classrooms were designed in and for another era of teaching," he said. "The new facility will accommodate a range of classroom styles, including problem-based learning and seminar- style teaching." A committee of distinguished UD faculty has been formed and is working on classroom design issues with the architect, Schiavelli said. Charles Forbes, vice president for development and alumni relations at the University, said, "On an occasion as momentous as this, it is appropriate to pause and reflect that we Americans are uniquely blessed by our long history of, and deep commitment to, private gift philanthropy. No where else in the world is the spirit of helping each other, of giving to each other, such an important part of our national way of life and our own individual way of life.... "The Gore family joins a small but important group of past benefactors who, in large measure, have provided a foundation for so much of the excellence that distinguishes this University today," Forbes said. Andrew B. Kirkpatrick, chairman of the University's Board of Trustees, concluded the ceremony, noting "This is a glorious summer day and a very grand day as well for the University of Delaware. I'm pleased to be a part of it and very proud to represent our Board of Trustees in extending to the Gores-to Vieve, Sally and Bob-our heartfelt thanks for their magnificent gift.... "To me, this gift is special in many ways, in addition to its size and the merit of its purpose," Kirkpatrick said. "The very act of giving, is of course, something that we generally regard as positive. Giving outside the family to an institution, especially an institution as worthwhile as this, is particularly noble. But, after creating wealth, as the Gores have done in their business, arranging through a gift to such an institution for the preservation of that wealth in perpetuity is the grandest act of all. "The enduring value of this gift is reflected in a definition of school, which goes as follows, 'School is a building that has four walls with tomorrow inside.' Tomorrow is what this gift provides," Kirkpatrick said. Kirkpatrick presented the Gores with framed prints of a 1928 revised version of the 1917 Day & Klauder plan for the development of the University's Mall, which shows a building to be built at a future time on the site for the new classroom building. The new classroom building will be built on the Mall between Mitchell Hall and Sharp Laboratory and will be connected by the overhead walkway across South College Avenue to the classroom/office building, Smith Hall. Currently, there are 141 general purpose classrooms on the Newark campus, with capacities ranging from 14 to 392 students. These classrooms housed 2,077 sections each week in the 1994 fall semester and 1,989 sections last spring. Classrooms are in use from 8 a.m.-10 p.m. each weekday to serve the 17,000 students who attend classes on the Newark campus. EDiS of Wilmington will serve as construction managers for the classroom building. Construction is expected to begin next summer, with scheduled completion in the fall of 1997.