Highlights of the New Law Center

Work on the new home of Baylor Law School, the Sheila and Walter Umphrey Law Center, started in the fall of 1999. The facility recently opened for classes at the start of the Fall 2001 academic term.
Completion of the center marks the end of a project that began almost a decade ago when architects first were asked to consider plans for solving the Law School’s outdated facilities problem. The project architect is SmithGroup, Inc. of Washington, D.C., a high-profile architectural firm that operates across the nation and abroad.
Measuring 128,000 square feet, the three-story classically styled building is well in excess of more than double the size of Morrison Constitution Hall, the Law School’s home since 1955. The building features floor-to-floor heights of 17’ that, with an apex roof, create a soaring, majestic design. The footprint of the building reaches within 85 feet of the Brazos riverbank. The parking lot at the new facility can accommodate the entire Law School community. The 4 1/2-acre site includes lawns, a courtyard and a river terrace, which are all beautifully landscaped.
Rich colors, fabrics, finishes and materials are used throughout the center, including the very extensive use of Makoré, an imported African cherry wood. The entry corridor, lounge area, library entrance area and staircases feature Vermont slate flooring, which is used as an accent finish on hallway floors and exterior walls. Natural slate also is used for classroom chalkboards.
The facility features a large advocacy suite with state-of-the-art courtrooms and a two-story high appellate advocacy courtroom/classroom, as well as an array of classrooms, competition team and student organization spaces, lounge areas, administrative areas and a food servery.
The three-story library wing offers study and research areas with views overlooking the Brazos River. The library, with more than 50,530 square feet of space, is more than double the size of the former law library, and features and emphasizes access through technology.
Technical innovation permeates the new building, which has more than 30 miles of computer wiring. It features data and power plug-in capability at virtually every seat in the building, including classrooms, courtrooms and the library. The law center also has a concurrent wireless network capability.
Principal donors include Walter and Sheila Umphrey, John Eddie and Sheridan Williams, and Harold and Carol Ann Nix. Umphrey, Williams and Nix are all Baylor law graduates and long-time supporters of the Law School. The law center will be dedicated April 6, 2002, during the Law School’s principal annual social gathering, the week-long Law Day celebration.
The Law School has an enrollment ceiling of 400 and plans in the coming years to reduce the enrollment to about 375.