STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS —Whether they reveled in person or tuned in remotely from afar, more than 500 people celebrated the start of construction of the new home of the Stanford Business School during an Oct. 10 bash held under a massive party tent pitched on the Serra Street construction site.

The late afternoon event included remarks by Dean Robert Joss and others about the significance of the 360,000-square foot, 12-acre, environmentally sustainable campus, which will be named the Knight Management Center after major benefactor Phil Knight. The founder and chairman of sports business Nike Inc., Knight, MBA ’62, donated $105 million toward construction.

“Welcome to our First Night at Knight. This really is an incredible evening,” said Joss, urging party-goers—many sporting yellow hard hats in keeping with the construction theme—to eye the bare lot behind him peppered with huge construction equipment where the new campus is expected to open in roughly two years. “When I started in this role, I never could have imagined what we would have accomplished through the incredible creativity and efforts of our faculty, staff, students, and especially our alumni that are gathered here today,” Joss continued. “I hope when people look back at this period, they will say this was a defining moment in the history of our School, when we really launched the GSB into the future of management education for the 21st century.”

Beyond the campus, members of the Business School community were able to hear Joss’ speech and watch the program via a real-time online broadcast. That show blended live interviews—such as Kathleen Kavanaugh, associate dean for administration and manager of the project, and others—conducted by emcee Tad Glauthier, MBA ’02, with prerecorded interviews with notables including Knight and Stan Boles, principal of BOORA Architects, the Portland-based executive architect for the campus.

The video of the event is available online, along with live images being posted every 15 seconds from two web cameras trained on the construction site.

First Night at Knight took place during the University-wide reunion weekend, which drew thousands of enthusiastic graduates Stanford-wide.

Inside the First Knight at Night tent, a steady stream of alums and their guests looked over a miniature three-dimensional model of the new Business School and a series of color renderings of the new campus. “We are going to use a lot of local materials and try to recycle,” Senior Associate Dean of Operations Daniel Rudolph said to one group.

When finished, the entire campus plans to be the only business school in the world to meet LEED platinum certification standards for energy and water use set by the U.S. Green Building Council, said Joss. “I think it’s a wonderful leadership statement,” said Joss before calling for a toast.Here is to our future home.”

To qualify for LEED certification, the building is expected to reduce energy usage by 38 percent below typical buildings of its type and reduce the use of potable water by 80 percent.

The campus’ sustainable mission impressed alum Edward Manley, MBA ’63. “Everybody today should be thinking green. I think that is very important,” said Manley, who attended the event with his wife, Maya Manley, and daughter, Catherine Manley, JD ’01. “I think it’s going to be a fantastic campus. It will put this business school in front of the others.”