The University of Kansas Conference Center, located at the north end zone of the David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium in the KU Gateway District, provides 55,000 square feet of event space for meetings, athletic recruitment events, alumni celebrations, business conferences, trade shows, receptions, and other gatherings. During football game days, the space functions as a fan hospitality area. The local limestone facade ties the facility to the university’s historic campus. 

The 1502 Building at 1502 Iowa St. houses several units within Enrollment Management, including Office of the University Registrar, Financial Aid & Scholarships, Student Information Systems, Graduate Enrollment Management, Recruitment Communications and Systems, Enrollment Management Shared Services, and the Admissions Operations teams. The Admissions recruiting staff has offices in the Jayhawk Welcome Center.

The $21 million, 30,000-square-foot center is the starting point for campus visits by prospective students and their families and a point of interest for all visitors to campus. Funded by private gifts, the construction of the Jayhawk Welcome Center was part of the renovation of the Adams Alumni Center, and the welcome center ties into the existing building at 1266 Oread Ave.

The center opened in 2023. It is home to Office of Admissions staffers and includes meetings rooms, a 34-foot-tall video screen, several digital displays with touchscreen technology, and a photo booth.

Statues of six historic Jayhawks, funded by alumnus James Ascher Sr. and his wife, Mary Ellen, with additional support from the Pi Deuteron Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta, stand on pedestals at the south edge of the plaza by the Kansas Union. The statues were sculpted by artist Robin Richerson and cast using the “lost-wax” method. All six were unveiled in March 2019.

In September 2022, a seventh statue, of a nesting Jayhawk, was unveiled on the plaza.

The $2.4 million hall, designed by Hollis & Miller of Overland Park, opened in fall 1971 and was dedicated Sept. 29, 1972. It was named for Raymond F. Nichols (1903-99), 12th chancellor (1972-73) and chancellor emeritus, journalism alumnus (1926 and 1928), and longtime KU administrator (1929-73).

Space technology was the early focus of the divisions at Nichols Hall. It now houses the Information & Telecommunication Technology Center (ITTC), the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS), and the KU Geology Isotope Geochemistry Laboratories (IGL).

The redbrick classical-style building, designed by Kiene & Bradley Architectural Partnership of Topeka, was dedicated May 14, 1983, in the centennial year of the Alumni Association. The association had been housed in Fraser and Strong halls, Sudler House and the Kansas Union before the new center was built. An alumni fund drive raised $4.2 million for construction, and the KU Endowment Association donated a site northeast of the Kansas Union.

The 20,432-square-foot building provides research and testing space for KU’s Biobehavioral Research on Autism, Intellectual and Neurodevelopmental disabilities (BRAIN) Lab.

South Dining Commons is a 22,000-square-foot community dining area that opened in 2017 and serves the Central District as one of KU Dining Service’s residential dining halls. To the west, it connects to Cora Downs Residence Hall.

Slawson Hall is the south tower of the $78.5 million Earth, Energy & Environment Center, which opened in 2018. Slawson Hall was made possible by a $16 million gift from the family of the late Donald Slawson of Wichita, founder of an oil and gas exploration firm and a 1955 KU graduate. It focuses on technology transfer, providing practical applications for discoveries and developments in engineering and geology.

Ritchie Hall is the north tower of the $78.5 million Earth, Energy & Environment Center, which opened in 2018. Ritchie Hall is named in honor of Scott Ritchie, a 1954 KU alumnus who founded an oil and gas exploration company, and Carol Ritchie of Wichita, who donated $12 million. It amalgamates teaching and laboratory spaces formerly housed in Lindley, Nichols, and Moore halls and the Multidisciplinary Research Building.