On your next visit to campus, stop by Korman Quad to see the new Korman Center. Korman Center has scrapped its ’50s brick façade for a contemporary steel-and-glass exterior more in keeping with nearby Gerri C. LeBow Hall, thanks to a new $16 million makeover that began in summer 2016. A new addition to the building opened late last year, with special conference rooms, study spaces and lots and lots of natural light.
The new space has 65 open seats, six group-study tables and three enclosed group-study rooms, outfitted with shareable monitors and fritted-glass walls that can be written on with whiteboard markers. A multi-purpose audio-visual room on the second floor seats 24 people.
The area outside the Korman Center was redesigned as well, featuring a new front porch with four long wooden benches. The side of the building overlooking the Korman Quad features a cantilevered terracotta screen to block sun glare. Behind that, the building has a new two-story glazed wall, transparent enough to see through.
The project involved the renovation of 6,500 square feet and the addition of 1,500 square feet. The building expansion was designed by Gluckman Tang Architects. Andropogon Associates, known for its commitment to ecological landscape design, designed the green space that opened as the Korman Quad last fall.
Originally home to Drexel’s library, the Korman Center was named in 1977 in honor of alumnus Max W. Korman ’29 and his brother, alumnus and trustee Samuel J. Korman ’34. About four decades later, the Hyman Korman Family Foundation donated $8 million for a 21st-century makeover of it and the adjacent Korman Quad, which the University matched.
The new space has 65 open seats, six group-study tables and three enclosed group-study rooms.