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A Welcomed Home World-Class Center Designed to better serve Alumni, Parents and Friends. Scroll down to learn more.

The United StateS Naval Academy Alumni Association and Foundation Center is on track to become reality in Annapolis.

The U.S. Naval Academy Foundation and U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association authorized the construction of a new Alumni Center at their Fall 2019 meetings. A contract to break ground on the site was signed in October 2021. The Foundation and Alumni Association authorized the sale of the Ogle Hall complex and Maryland Avenue Athletic & Scholarship Programs office to support this effort. Those properties sold for $4.65 million in August 2021 with proceeds earmarked for operating expenses of the new facility. Fundraising for the center has been ongoing, with plans unfolding for both class and individual recognition opportunities throughout the facility and grounds.

The facility—targeted to open in 2023—is designed to provide a premium venue for a wide range of alumni events, streamline and enhance Alumni Association and Foundation operations and provide an ideal space to celebrate alumni achievements in all aspects of society—all of which help support the Naval Academy mission and strengthen the global alumni network.

The new Center will provide a welcoming site for alumni to reconnect at events and advance the missions of the Alumni Association and Foundation, said Daniel F. Akerson ’70, chairman, Naval Academy Foundation Board of Directors. “The new facility will bring efficiencies to the programs and services offered by our great Alumni Association and Foundation staff. It will also help the enterprise build greater support for strategic priorities on the Yard, such as cyber security programs within Hopper Hall (completed in summer 2020), leadership development.”

A single, dedicated space to serving alumni has been part of the Naval Academy’s strategic plan because it will produce clearer lines of communication between the Yard and the alumni groups supporting midshipmen.
“To recognize the importance of the role our alumni play in providing a level of excellence we need to ensure that our alumni center is a world-class one as well.”

- ADM Samuel J. Locklear, ’77, USN (Ret.), Chair, U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association Board of Trustees

The proposed facility, with bucolic views of College Creek, will be just a few steps from the Yard. It will include indoor and outdoor event space, an alumni lounge conference rooms, on-site parking and enough office space to house Alumni Association, Foundation and Athletic & Scholarship Programs staff under one roof.

While the concept for the project dates back more than a decade and was codified in the Naval Academy Strategic Plan 2020 and the Alumni Association and Foundation’s strategic plan, moving from concept to completion takes dedication to execute the project as a priority for the Academy and its alumni. The Center project is impacted by multiple stakeholders including the Alumni Association Board of Trustees, the Naval Academy Foundation Board of Directors, Athletic and Scholarship Programs Trustees, a joint alumni advisory panel, the Maryland Historic Trust, the U.S. Navy, the Naval Academy and the City of Annapolis.

The Alumni Center will bring all of the organizations’ staff and resources under one roof off King George Street. The center will be able to accommodate several alumni events simultaneously.

Architectural Renderings
“IT WILL BE GREAT FOR ALUMNI TO HAVE A SINGULARLY FOCUSED PLACE TO COME BACK AND MINGLE AND NOT HAVE TO BE IN GEOGRAPHICALLY DIFFERENT SPOTS.”

–VADM Sean Buck ’83, USN, Superintendent, U.S. Naval Academy

To Learn More about the Alumni association and Foundation and the Alumni Center, read the full article in the October 2021 issue of Shipmate.

All renderings and illustrations displayed here are preliminary and subject to change.