Iona College LaPenta School of Business

Building on the tradition of the original Hagan School of Business, Gensler worked closely with Iona College to develop its new LaPenta School of Business building, which embraces the past by being “distinctly Iona” while also focusing on the future. The original building was steeped in the collective memory of the campus, so abandoning it was out of the question. The Gensler team proposed a solution to design a 35,000-square-foot addition that enhances the existing building by interconnecting the floors to create a unified academic facility. To seamlessly blend the existing building’s aesthetic, the team designed a central atrium that serves as a gathering space and showcases activity within the building. The business school’s additional square footage supports the collaborative nature of work and learning, with a 110-seat lecture hall, smaller lecture classrooms, several flexible classrooms, group study rooms, a trading floor, and a media suite.