Purdue News

Visual, performing arts complex on horizon Time may be running out for the "temporary" buildings that now house creative and performing arts classrooms, galleries and offices on the West Lafayette Campus. In May, the Board of Trustees approved capital requests totaling $51.4 million that will be presented to the Indiana General Assembly in the 1999 session. Of that total, $24 million would be spent on the first phase of the planned $70 million visual and performing arts complex. The remainder of the funds will be raised from private sources. The present buildings, known as Creative Arts 1 to 5, were put up in 1946 to cope with the crush of students after World War II ended. A shortage of building materials forced the University to turn to the salvage market. The barracks had been used to house World War II troops. "The time is long past that we should provide a suitable facility for our visual and performing arts students," President Steven Beering says. "Those barracks were considered temporary when we bought them used in the 1940s. The move will allow us to consolidate our arts on the south side of campus." The Department of Visual and Performing Arts serves more than 500 undergraduates and 60 graduate students, as well as several thousand enrolled in arts courses each year. Preliminary plans call for a visual and performing arts complex to be located across Marsteller Street from the Horticulture Building on land now occupied by parking lots and property owned by the Purdue Research Foundation. Additional plans call for the expansion of the Marsteller Street Garage to serve the complex. Besides the classroom, office and related space for visual and performing arts, the complex will include a 2,500-seat theater and space for Purdue Musical Organizations, Convocations and Lectures, and WBAA radio as well as galleries and other exhibit areas. Creative Arts 1 to 5 are located near the Civil Engineering Building. Four of them occupy the prominent corner at Northwestern and Stadium avenues. The visibility has prompted uncounted alumni, students and their parents to wonder how and why the University has gotten so much use out of the buildings. Beering's answer: "Construction priorities such as the Liberal Arts and Education Building, Food Science complex, expansion of Lynn Hall, and regional campuses had to be addressed. Now we turn our attention to a home that will reflect the excellence of our programs in the arts." If funding for the first phase of the project is approved, work would begin in 2000. Also included in the capital request is $6.4 million to complete the Technology Building at Purdue North Central. When the building was dedicated in 1994, the third floor was left unfinished because of a lack of funds. The remainder of the capital request would be used to upgrade existing utilities systems at the West Lafayette Campus.