The designers of the US’s single most expensive academic building have clearly thought hard about what a highly ranked MBA college ought to look like.

Constructed on a former car park in the centre of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Tepper School of Business’s $201m campus building opened its plate glass floor-to-ceiling doors to students and faculty last September. The 315,000 sq ft brick, steel and concrete edifice houses a virtual reality learning laboratory, a 600-seater auditorium and the largest fitness centre on campus.

The visit was a very slick experience. My only struggle — apart from meeting executive MBA students touring the campus virtually on iPad mounted bots — was finding my way up the swirling staircases to the secluded office of Bob Dammon, Tepper’s dean.