A summer donation of $15 million to the Syracuse University College of Law will be used to kick-start a fundraising effort to finance a new state-of-the-art law building.

The new $85 million to $90 million building will provide a unified facility for the entire law school, which is currently housed in two buildings, E. I. White Hall and Winifred MacNaughton Hall, said Kevin Quinn, senior vice president of public affairs.

‘The goal is to have a 21st-century building for the law school,’ Quinn said in an e-mail.

The $15 million naming donation, the largest in the 115-year history of the law school, was made in June in honor of two alumni: Robert Emmet Dineen and Carolyn Bareham Dineen. Their children, Kathryn Dineen Wriston, Carolyn Dineen King and Robert E. Dineen Jr., himself an alumnus of the law school, made the donation.

‘We’re very enthusiastic fans of Syracuse University and the College of Law because of all it did for our parents,’ said King, a federal appeals judge in Texas who received an honorary degree from SU in 2006.

The siblings decided to donate to a new building named after their parents because they believed the law school is in desperate need of an up-to-date, unified facility, King said. 

Giving the law school what it needs most was the best way to honor their parents’ memory, she said. 

‘It simply needs to be more efficient,’ she said. ‘The two buildings don’t work particularly well together. The school needs a unified place for students to study and talk. Law students tend to study in groups, four or five students studying for finals or talking about case files. There needs to be an environment conducive to that kind of work.’

The new 200,000-square foot building will be located west of the current law school. Irving Garage on the north, Irving Avenue on the east, Raynor Avenue on the south and Stadium Place on the west will be the boundaries of the new building. Because this area is mostly a parking lot, SU does not anticipate any difficulties in clearing the area and obtaining a building permit, said Kelly Rodoski of SU News.

Robert Dineen, the siblings’ father, went to law school straight out of high school and received a certificate in law, enabling him to build a successful 23-year law practice, King said. He then became superintendent of insurance for the state of New York. After being superintendent, he joined Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and later became the president and chief executive officer.

The siblings’ mother, Carolyn, was one of only two women enrolled in the law school during her time there. After graduating, she practiced law for five years before taking a break to have children and raise a family, King said. She later worked with many local nonprofits, which King said her law degree helped with.

One of the key goals of the billion-dollar campaign, a fundraising effort kicked off in 2007, was to secure financing for a new law building, Quinn said. 

MacNaughton Hall was built in 1998, while White Hall dates back to 1954 with renovations in 1997.

The additional $75 million needed to fund the building that is not covered by the Dineens’ donation will come from other alumni donations, Quinn said.

‘Already other Syracuse alums and supporters are stepping forward to support the project,’ he said. ‘The specific breakout of funding is still being determined, but in addition to substantial fundraising, support for the project will be through a partnership between the law school and university.’

Richard Gluckman, a School of Architecture alumnus who previously worked with SU on building The Warehouse, will be the architect of the new building. He said he has been working with the law school for two years, evaluating the possible need for renovations or a new building.

‘We concluded it to be more beneficial not to enter into a long term, phased renovation process, but to do a ground-up new building,’ he said. ‘It feels wonderful to be an alum working on this project. I’m really glad to participate in the ongoing expansion and renovating of the campus.’

It is too early in the design phase to know what specific attributes the new building will have and when construction will begin, Gluckman said.

The university is deciding how to use White Hall and MacNaughton Hall once the law school moves into the new building, but it is expected they will continue to be academic buildings, Quinn said.

King said so far she and her siblings are happy with the way the plans are going.

‘We hope it all works out,’ King said, ‘and that future students will be happy and future faculty, too.’

rhkheel@syr.edu