The landscape – and skyline – changed at the Georgetown University Law Center this summer. What was once an open parking lot and a city street has given way to two expansive new buildings, and what a Legal Times article referred to as an “urban oasis.”
The Law Center completed construction on the new Eric E. Hotung International Law Center Building and a Sport and Fitness Building . These two new buildings are connected on their main level and open into a grassy courtyard that extends to the Law Center ‘s existing buildings and features a clock tower.
“[The buildings] make Georgetown the most beautiful law campus in the country,” said Alexander Aleinikoff, dean and executive vice president of the Law Center .
The advent of these new buildings marks the Law Center ‘s expansion from one to five buildings since it moved to its current location between F Street and New Jersey Avenue in 1971. The Gewirz Student Center was completed in 1993 and the E.B. Williams Law Library opened in 1997.
Construction began on the two newly-completed buildings in late summer 2002. Aleinikoff said that the Oct. 27 formal opening of the international law building will feature Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor as a guest speaker, and the Sept. 10 opening of the sport and fitness center will feature a panel of alumni distinguished in the athletics field.
The $60.7 million expansion was funded by over $20 million in alumni contributions. This, Aleinikoff said, “shows the commitment of Law School alums to the continued progress at the Law Center .”
The Hotung building will feature an expanded library on its third and fourth floors. Georgetown’s current international and foreign law collections will be moved there from their current location in the Williams Library. This collection will be supplemented by international law journals and office space.
“[The international law building] stands as a symbol of the way legal education at Georgetown is moving towards a more transnational perspective,” Aleinikoff said.
The Hotung building will also feature a mock courtroom modeled after the interior of the U.S. Supreme Court and containing identical technological components to federal district courts.
In addition to the library and the courtroom, the Hotung building offers technologically-advanced classrooms and conference rooms on its first and second floors. Classrooms will be equipped with podiums with touch-screen electronic controls, allowing professors to engage in multimedia presentations that incorporate online materials. Ten new seminar rooms equipped to facilitate audio-conferencing and Web-casting, are also included.
Kerry Murphy, assistant director of the Law Annual Fund at the Office of Alumni, Development and Public Relations, recently transferred to an office in one of the newly-completed buildings.
According to Murphy, several Law Center offices had been previously located off-campus, distancing them from contact with students. She said that having an office in one of the centrally-located new buildings helps her maintain a closer connection to the student population.
The new Sport and Fitness Building features a 25-meter lap pool, a large gym with over 80 pieces of equipment, and full-size racquetball, basketball and volleyball courts.
“Now people can have a chance to work out and swim without having to trek all the way to main campus,” said Sam Gabremariam (LAW ’06), assistant director of alumni affairs at the Office of Alumni, Development and Public Relations at the Law Center.
The Sport and Fitness Building will also house a cyber cafe, a grill and a juice bar, as well as a double-pool fountain.
Aleinikoff said that both law students and faculty are “ecstatic” over the opening of the new buildings. He said that he hopes to “fill these buildings with happy students, great new thinking in international law.”
