Vanderbilt University revealed renderings offering a first look at its planned $520 million West Palm Beach campus.
The proposed campus will span a total of 300,000 square feet, with the aim to serve 1,000 graduate students in tech and business programs when it is completed, according to a press release. Vanderbilt, known as “the Harvard of the South,” tapped Boston-based Elkus Manfredi Architects to design the campus, the release shows.
The renderings depict an “Academic and Innovation Building” and an “Executive Education and Lifelong Learning Building.” A spokesperson declined to comment on the total number of buildings planned for the campus. The Executive Education building design calls for the use of mass timber, an engineered wood material considered highly sustainable, the release shows.
Local officials have given the university a warm welcome. Palm Beach County commissioners and West Palm Beach city officials voted last year to gift Vanderbilt 7 acres for the campus. At an August county commission meeting devoted to the campus proposal, West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James framed Vanderbilt’s arrival as an inflection point for the coastal city.
“I would urge you to recognize the significance of this moment before us,” he said at the meeting. “The actions we take today will undoubtedly shape the future of this county for generations to come.”
The university is now raising $300 million to build the campus, according to the press release. Billionaire developer Steve Ross has been an active proponent and fundraiser for the campus since at least March of last year. An estimated $100 million was committed for the campus following a reception Ross hosted for Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier in Palm Beach in April, Bloomberg reported at the time.
Vanderbilt faces deadlines to reach its fundraising goal and begin construction of the campus. Its development and conveyance agreement (DCA) with the county requires that the university secure permits and approvals within four years, and start construction within five years. The county also required that Vanderbilt spend $1 billion in connection to the campus within five years of opening.