Purdue News

July 11, 2003

Purdue Trustees approve two arts construction projects at IPFW, WL

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue University Board of Trustees today (Friday, 7/11) approved plans to spend $25 million for a music building on the Fort Wayne campus and $11.8 on the second phase of the visual and performing arts building on the West Lafayette campus.

Trustees also approved an expanded isolation facility for the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, work on two aprons at the Purdue University Airport, the hiring of an architect for renovations to the Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering, a lease for a storage facility and an increase in the budget for Pfendler Hall renovations.

Indiana University-Purdue University Chancellor Michael A. Wartell said the $25 million facility will house the school's music program, as well as include space for art galleries, classrooms and other facilities.

The 107,000-square-foot building, which will be located near the campus' theater and visual art complexes, also will house an auditorium to accommodate the Omnibus Lecture Series. The series, which has brought speakers such as Molly Ivins and Beverly Sills to IPFW, routinely draws as many as 1,000 spectators.

"The new facility will also include offices and work space for community arts groups," Wartell said. "The university has a long tradition of supporting the arts in Fort Wayne, and this new building will provide one more way for us to encourage a strong arts presence in the community."

The building will be paid for with $6 million in gift funds and $19 million in bonds.

The second phase of the visual and performing arts building, which is currently under construction near the intersection of Marsteller and Wood streets in West Lafayette, will finish almost 50,000 square feet of space in the facility.

Kenneth P. Burns, executive vice president and treasurer, said initial bids for the project exceeded state funding and private donations, so these spaces were left unfinished during the initial construction, which is set to be completed by fall. An additional $11.8 million in gift funds will be allocated to pay for the completion of classroom and performance space. Construction will likely begin in the summer of 2004.

The second phase includes two theaters and space for costume design and storage, dressing rooms, prop storage and scenery construction, as well as classrooms and workshop space for theater and music classes. One theater, a 300-seat proscenium, will take the place of the Experimental Theater in Stewart Center.

The second, a studio theater, will seat 138-170 people, depending upon its configuration, and will replace an existing, smaller black box theater. The facility also includes galleries, classrooms and workshop space for dance, visual arts and interior design.

The board also voted to hire Kettlehut Construction of Lafayette, Ind., to build an eight-stall, 5,740-square-foot isolation facility adjacent to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital. The $1.9 million project will provide space to quarantine horses and cattle that are suspected of having infectious diseases.

Mimi Arighi, director of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, said the hospital's four current isolation stalls are part of the main facility and moving them will create space to better quarantine and care for more animals.

"The isolation facility is an important addition to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital," Arighi said. "There is a continual need to quarantine horses with communicable diseases, particularly during the summer months when bacteria levels are high and animals' immune systems are taxed. A larger isolation facility will allow us to better serve both our clients and our students."

Each stall will be equipped to handle horses, the primary users of such facilities. One stall also will be equipped to treat cattle. In addition to the isolation stalls, the facility will provide one treatment room, a sterilization room, two small storage rooms and office space.

The project will be paid for with $1.9 million in gift funds and should begin by late summer. The existing isolation unit will be remodeled after the new facility is completed.

IN OTHER ACTION, THE BOARD: