The University of Wisconsin–Madison has announced a $20 million lead gift from brothers and alumni Jeff Levy ('72) and Marv Levy ('68, JD '71) in support of a new academic building in the College of Letters & Science.

Construction on Irving and Dorothy Levy Hall, named for the parents of Jeff and Marv, is expected to begin in 2023 and be completed in 2025. Once complete, the building will establish a unified home for the Department of History and nine other L&S academic departments, programs, and centers that currently are spread across eight facilities on campus. The five-story building will feature nineteen classrooms as well as a space where students can gather and interact informally with each other and their instructors to maximize collaboration.

The Levy brothers own and operate Phillips Distributing Corporation in Madison. Their commitment was contingent upon the Wisconsin state legislature and governor including the project in the 2021-23 state budget with $60 million in state support, which occurred earlier this year.

"We envision this vital new facility as a highly collaborative and state-of-the-art learning environment for all," said College of Letters & Science dean Eric Wilcots. "We are immensely grateful to the Levy family for their support of this vision. Our students deserve classroom space that enhances interactive learning and engagement through cutting-edge technology. They also deserve a building that inspires, rather than intimidates. The Levy family's gift will reverberate through future generations, touching many lives."

"We are proud to help make this building a reality. We hope it will be a central educational location for the undergraduate experience at UW-Madison," said Marv Levy. "Our hope is that by honoring our family legacy of charitable giving with this gift, we can offer to future generations some of the opportunity that the UW has provided us."