Overview

Renowned Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly (b. 1944) designed Claremont McKenna College's Kravis Center classroom building, working with the Los Angeles-based construction firm Bernards. The Kravis Center's construction began in 2008 and finished in 2011 on a site once occupied by Pitzer Hall.

Building History

Claremont McKenna College alumnus Henry Kravis (graduate in 1967 of what was then the Claremont Men's College) and his wife, Marie-Josée Kravis (b. 1949), donated the funds to build this 162,000-square-foot multi-purpose building, that was, in the college's words, "...composed of intimate indoor and outdoor meeting spaces, flexible classrooms, and academic research areas. The building’s design creates exciting synergies among students, faculty, departments, and research institutes." (See

Henry Kravis (b. 1944) was a partner in Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Company, (known in 2016 as "KKR and Company, LP"), founded in 1976 by three cousins, Kravis, Jerome Kohlberg, Jr., (1925-2015) and George R. Roberts (b. 1944). Prior to starting Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, the three had worked in the 1960s for the bellweather Wall Street financial firm, Bear Stearns, which collapsed in the economic meltdown of 2008. At Bear Stearns, they devised an acquisition strategy that became known as the "leveraged buyout," utilizing a takeover company's cashflow as collateral to secure and repay a large loan. Leveraged buyouts became very popular in the 1980s, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Company, became one of the leading practitioners of the method, exemplified by its 1985 takeover of Beatrice Foods, Incorporated in 1985 and the1989 leveraged acquisition of RJR Nabisco.

The architect Rafael Viñoly, assigned his nephew, Rafael Viñoly-Menendez, to be the Project Director for the Kravis Center.

PCAD id: 20463