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August 1999
Visual and Performing Arts Center
would link campus, community
Story first printed in the 1999 Summer edition of Perspective newspaper for alumni and friends.
A place for the fine arts on the West Lafayette Campus is taking shape.
To be located one-half block south of Stewart Center on Marsteller Street, the Visual and Performing Arts Center will be unlike any building on campus.
The project - to be funded by a combination of private funds and state support - will bring together under one roof many teaching, research and outreach; performance and exhibit; and administrative operations now spread through more than a dozen buildings.
The possibilities for students, faculty and staff, alumni, and the Greater Lafayette community are endless.
"Audiences leaving shows will see the work of our students and faculty on display," says David Sigman, head of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts. "Our students will be able to interact with touring companies and artists in ways that will be of great benefit to all."
The Visual and Performing Arts Center will be alive with activity day and night, as dance students practice pirouettes and pliés while Glee Club performers harmonize and ceramics majors throw a pot on the wheel. Student projects in programs such as industrial design, interior design and photography - offerings that many alumni might not know exist - will be on display for all to see.
"Having all of these curricular and co-curricular programs under one roof presents infinite possibilities for cross-pollination and synergy," Sigman says.
The center also will forge new ties with the Greater Lafayette community, as touring troupes and musical ensembles come to campus. The central atrium has been designed to have two main entrances, one facing the Agricultural Mall to the west and one to the east for community use.
Construction of the center also will provide a new focal point south of State Street.
The center will be located just east of Agricultural Mall, a green space ripe for refurbishment, flanked by the Horticulture, Food Science and Forestry buildings. Also on the mall are the Whistler Hall of Agricultural Research and the Hansen Life Sciences Research Building.
"We envision a sculptured pedestrian courtyard that will be a place for relaxation and reflection unlike anyplace else on campus," says Tom Schmenk, director of facilities planning and construction.
The phases of the project - roughly divided into academic and administrative space on the north and performance, rehearsal, gallery and exhibit, restaurant, and administrative space on the south - will open onto a three-story central atrium. The first phase will be completed and closed in on the south side until the start of the second phase, which will include the atrium.
State support for the first phase of the project is in hand. To complete the performance, rehearsal, exhibit and gallery, and restaurant space, roughly $75 million will be needed. A campaign to raise those funds as well as discussions with corporate partners are in the early stages.
The planned second phase includes a 2,200-seat performance hall, gallery and exhibit areas, and rehearsal space for Purdue Musical Organizations. Additionally, administrative offices for these areas as well as Convocations and Lectures will be located in the new space.
The final phase also includes a relocated John Purdue Room restaurant, now in Stone Hall. The restaurant will continue to be a teaching facility for the Department of Restaurant, Hotel, Institutional and Tourism Management. Plans call for labs and classrooms in addition to the restaurant.
The Class of 1952 is raising funds to acquire sculpture for the renovated Agricultural Mall.
If all phases go according to plan, work will be completed on the Visual and Performing Arts Center by 2004.
Stories by Jay Cooperider
Photographs by David Umberger
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