This fall, the Republic Building in Columbus opened its doors to Indiana University's first cohort of master's students in the Indiana University Bloomington School of Art, Architecture + Design's J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program.

This week, IU President Michael A. McRobbie joined university leaders, faculty, students and members of the Columbus community to express gratitude for the generous support that has made the new program and its new home possible and take a tour of the newly renovated Republic Building.

"We want to take the opportunity tonight to express our most grateful thanks to all those in Columbus who have given tireless and unwavering support to IU and to this new program—in some cases, over many years," McRobbie said.

Housing the new program in Columbus is significant as the city is known for its striking structures designed by renowned architects like Myron Goldsmith, Eero and Eliel Saarinen, I.M. Pei, and Harry Weese. Goldsmith designed the Republic Building, a glass-and-steel facility that was originally home to the Republic Newspaper Plant and Offices. IU's new master's program is also named in honor of J. Irwin Miller, a Columbus native and industrialist who was instrumental in revitalizing the city through architecture.

 "All of us at Indiana University are delighted that here, in this great and elegant building, which itself exemplifies excellence in design, we have established—in partnership with the citizens of this great city—a superb laboratory for architecture education right in the heart of Columbus, where students are acquiring the knowledge and skills they will need to become civic-minded, innovative, and imaginative architects and designers," McRobbie said.