Yale University is renovating a campus tower and renaming it after its chief investment officer, David F. Swensen.
Philanthropists Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin have donated $25 million to restore the Hall of Graduate Studies and have it house the humanities departments at the New Haven, Conn.-based university, spokesman Thomas Conroy said.
Their one request? That their alma mater rechristen the building the David Swensen Tower, in honor of their friend who manages Yale's $23.9 billion endowment. Yale officials have agreed.
Mr. Swensen has been the CIO at Yale since 1985, when the endowment totaled $1.3 billion. Since then, the endowment has grown a whopping 1,738.5% to its current value.
The renovation of the hall will enable the university to place now dispersed humanities departments under one roof.
The philanthropist couple also gave the university $25 million to establish the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage in 2011.
Ms. Rausing and Mr. Baldwin are historians who oversee a London charity called the Arcadia Fund, which donates to charities and scholarly institutions. Since its formation in 2002, Arcadia has awarded more than $330 million in grants to projects globally.
