In just over a week, Florida State University’s Legacy Hall building for its College of Business will reach the point of completion as construction work nears the finish line.
Legacy Hall – which will be the largest academic space on FSU’s extended campus from its location on West Gaines Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard – is still on track to be substantially complete by Aug. 30.
As over 90% of the $160 million project is currently complete, FSU College of Business Dean Michael Hartline said he’s “thoroughly excited” about what the new world-class facility will mean to the college’s faculty, staff and alumni, but especially to its students.
“The new spaces, leading-edge technology and corporate inspired aesthetics will promote the collaboration and networking skills needed to prepare our students for successful careers in business,” Hartline said. “It reinforces our college’s status as a preeminent program both in Florida and nationally.”
With the startup of major building systems – including electrical and mechanical features – anticipated at the beginning of next year, the business school’s first classes are planned to be held in the building in late January.
But FSU College of Business officials expect faculty and staff members to begin moving into the new facility during late fall ahead of the January class offerings, according to a university spokesperson.
The university broke ground on the building’s site in October 2022 and Culpepper Construction, a Tallahassee-based company, has been working with Boston architect Goody Clancy to build the future facility.
The new College of Business building expands FSU’s campus footprint and significantly changes the stretch of Gaines Street, where it’s surrounded by the FSU-owned Donald L. Tucker Civic Center and a brick building for the non-profit organization Florida Professional Firefighters.
In addition, alongside Legacy Hall is Doug Burnett Park − a small park on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard with a couple of benches and tall oak trees − and on the other side of Gaines Street is an apartment complex under construction called “The Hall,” which is slated to open in fall 2026.
Although there have been recent interferences with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a construction site near FSU’s campus in Tallahassee – where many undocumented workers were detained as a result of executive orders from the Trump administration – an FSU spokesperson said the university is not aware of any issues that have taken place on the Legacy Hall site.
Before reaching the point of becoming a $160 million initiative, the Legacy Hall project started off as a $65 million new-building campaign in 2013 and was originally expected to break ground in fall 2016 before its completion in fall 2018.
But with the timeline having a significant dependence on funding, the start date was then pushed back to the second half of 2019 with an anticipated grand opening date in fall 2021, all before its eventual groundbreaking in 2022.
Some of the new building’s features will include a 300-seat auditorium for classes and speaking events, a financial trading room, forum stairs with seating, a central atrium and a multipurpose event space. Over 200 private donors have contributed to the project, including FSU Board of Trustees member John Thiel and his wife Karen Thiel, who are listed together under the $500,000 to $1 million category on Legacy Hall’s donor webpage with their donation going toward the “Thiel Family Career & Professional Development Suite.”
“Made possible by generous investments from the state of Florida and alumni and friends of the college and university, Legacy Hall has been designed to support the growth of our academic programs and our students at the highest levels,” Hartline said.
The new facility’s completion will be just a few days after the university welcomes students and the rest of the campus community back for its Aug. 25 fall semester start date.
Tarah Jean is the higher education reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat, a member of the USA TODAY Network – Florida. She can be reached at tjean@tallahassee.com. Follow her on X: @tarahjean_.