A Home for the Public Good

UMD Begins Construction on New School of Public Policy Building

The University of Maryland has begun construction on a new School of Public Policy building that will take Terps into the next frontier of government, nonprofit and philanthropic education.

The planned 70,000-square-foot academic building, scheduled to open in 2022, will for the first time bring together the school’s 90 faculty members, more than 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students, and five centers and institutes, now spread among five different buildings on campus.

“Buildings shape us,” UMD President Wallace D. Loh said at the groundbreaking ceremony in October. “And what is going to be shaped in that building is the next generation of civil servants.”

Located next to Chapel Field, just steps from a planned Purple Line light-rail station, the School of Public Policy building will be a collaborative venue. Highlights include an assembly chamber modeled in the spirit of rooms at the United Nations; an atrium featuring news screens, stacked seminar rooms and a cascading staircase; and a library and rooftop terrace with scenic views.

As the hub of UMD’s Do Good Campus initiative, the building will also feature the new Do Good Hall of Fame and Do Good Plaza.

“University of Maryland professors will empower the next generation of policy leaders,” said Adrienne Jones, speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates. “You are creating the future of our state, the future of our economy, and the future is boundless.”

See a gallery of renderings of the new building at spp.umd.edu/our-new-home.