After 20 months and a $2 million budget increase, the School of Business officially opened its doors Tuesday, housing more than 43 classes.

The 38,000-square foot building was designed with sustainable features and a budget of $19 million. Carl Sgrecci, vice president of finance and administration, said the building should stay within its new budget.

“We might even do it a little better; we won’t know until we get all the final bills,” she said.

Fundraising from the Capital Campaign is expected to cover $17 million of the project, Sgrecci said. The other $2 million will be funded by bonds taken out to finance the Gateway Building and the School of Business, he said.

Some of the more expensive features were sustainable, but the prices were not as steep as expected, Sgrecci said.

“At the end of the day [the] … extra things to make it energy efficient [weren’t] as high as we anticipated,” he said.

The new building, which at press time had not received an official name, will be dedicated to the Roy H. Park family, who helped provide much of the project’s costs, Susan Engelkemeyer, dean of the School of Business, said.

 “We’re still working out the exact language, but it will be named after them in some way,” she said.

The offices of 36 faculty members are on the third and fourth floors of the building. The Office of Facilities moved the faculty’s belongings from their previous offices in Smiddy Hall during break, Meg Nowak, assistant dean of the School of Business, said.

Renovations are being made on the first floor of Smiddy Hall, which will make the building more suitable for other courses, Nowak said. One class is being held in Smiddy 325, which is associated with the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance.

Nowak said there are very few construction projects left to finish.

“The only problem that is fairly evident is you can’t come in the second floor door,” she said. “That was because of a construction issue that was noticed within the last month.”

Engelkemeyer said students and faculty have complained that the glare from the building’s solar windows  makes Friends and Job Halls uncomfortably warm.

“I guess that means those buildings will probably get air-conditioning sooner than we thought,” she said.

Engelkemeyer said she does not foresee other problems.

“You do the best you can with the design and sometimes it works out the way you envisioned it and sometimes it doesn’t. ...” she said. “Our design [was] made to be flexible, so if in the future we need to shift things around, we can do that.”

The building is aiming for platinum-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. To achieve this, the building must satisfy certain prerequisites and earn points in six different categories. There are 69 possible points; to achieve platinum status, a building must earn 52 to 69 points.

The school is still in the application process, Engelkemeyer said.

“We still have to file some follow-up paperwork, so we won’t know until April or May [if it receives LEED certification],” she said.

Sustainable features include a white roof to reflect heat, water storage tanks filled with rainwater for flushing toilets and large windows which take advantage of natural light.

Donald Lifton, associate professor of management, said these and other features will instill environmental values within business students.

“This is a building dedicated to business, which too often in its bottom line mentality would not be initially seen as being hand-in-glove with sustainable approaches,” he said. “And yet, here we are.”

Sophomore Feleg Tsegaye, who has a class in the building this semester, noticed the sustainable features of the business school.

“The new business building is a great indication of Ithaca’s commitment to environmental responsibility,” he said. “The classrooms are very modern and a great change from buildings like Williams [Hall].”  

Ultimately, Sgrecci said he hopes the building attracts students outside the School of Business and aids to the sense of campus community.

“I really think this building is superb [because of] its design, its location, the way it welcomes you as you are approaching it and the way it opens itself up to the rest of the campus when you’re leaving,” he said. “We’re very pleased.”