$30 M Donation Establishes Future Home of IIC
A $30 million gift from a William & Mary alumna and W&M Foundation trustee will fund the transformation of a historic building on the W&M campus—Brown Hall—into a LEED-certified, state-of-the-art facility, designed to be the permanent home of the Institute for Integrative Conservation, the Global Research Institute (GRI), and the Whole of Government Center of Excellence (WGC).
The renovated building will be named Gates Hall for current university chancellor and former U.S. Defense Secretary, Robert M. Gates ’65, L.H.D. ’98, and its design will honor the rich and important history of the building and its grounds.
Gates Hall will be a hub for global conservation and a place where campus and international communities come together to work on biodiversity conservation challenges, including human social and economic challenges that are bound to and impact biodiversity.
The building is designed to bring people together, to break boundaries, and to seed organic growth of interdisciplinary and cross-sector work. Our co-housing with GRI and WGC extends the IIC's opportunity to relate conservation solutions to international development and global issues of democracy and sovereignty. Many opportunities will arise from the three units sharing collaborative research and learning space.
Gates Hall will be a sustainably designed building, with bio-design elements that beautifully reflect and nurture qualities that are fundamental to the IIC, including diversity, complexity, resilience, and adaptation. This renovated building will also enable the IIC to have even greater impact at W&M. The resources in the building, including spectacular new indoor and outdoor teaching spaces and state-of-the-art event facilities will enhance experiences for all W&M students, faculty, staff and alumni.
