The new home for the Philip Merrill College of Journalism is a 10-year public/private effort. With $16 million in support from the State of Maryland and an additional $14 million from private donors, this state-of-the-art building will bring, for the first time, all of the Merrill College's academic and professional programs under one roof.
Dean Tom Kunkel charged the architects to design a building that fit within the historical context of the university, but also be reflective of the technological era of the journalism profession and be open and transparent, as good journalism should be.
Knight Hall will be the first building on a planned new mall as the University begins an era of expansion into West campus. At the corner of Campus Drive and Lot 1, the new journalism school building is next to the Tawes Building with easy access to Cole Field House, the Riggs Alumni Center, Byrd Stadium and the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.
When it opens in late 2009, Knight Hall will replace the original journalism building which opened in 1957 and seen few substantive changes since. That year, the College of Journalism only offered a bachelors degree with 100 majors and 10 faculty and staff members. Today's student body of nearly 650 undergraduate, masters and doctoral students compounded with more than 60 faculty and staff and nine professional centers have caused the Merrill College to quickly outgrown its current space. We have used every nook and cranny in the often dank and dark spaces of the building and journalism programs and offices have leaked into more than 10 buildings spread across campus. At more than 30,000 square feet, Knight Hall will nearly double the existing building's usable space and bring everyone under one roof.
Why Knight Hall?
The University of Maryland President C.D. Mote Jr. announced in Sept. 2006 that the Merrill College's new home would be named after newspapermen and brothers John. S. and James L. Knight. The two Ohio-born newsmen were the founders of the Knight newspaper company (later becoming the now defunct Knight-Ridder chain) and established a foundation to further their vision for the profession. In the last 20 years, the Knight Foundation has granted the University of Maryland more than $21 million, including a $5 million leadership gift for the new journalism building. In honor of their support -- the most to any one journalism school in the country from the foundation -- Mote and the university approved the name Knight Hall.
