By Maura Kak
Staff Writer

The final plans for the new Visual and Performing Arts Building are completed and construction is to begin in April of next year.

The department is to move into the building for the spring semester of 2002. The facility will be located by the Marstellar Street Parking Garage across from Stewart Center.

Hiromi Jones, an architect involved in the project, said the new building is frugally designed yet accommodates many needs of the department. For example, high ceilings will accommodate the moving of scenery, and sound insulation will separate the theater from the scenery construction room.

"Acoustical separation is being designed into the building walls and floor, probably like no other building on campus," she said.

In many respects, the building will meet the needs of the department better than the school's current facility. There will be three computing centers, two general classrooms and approximately 20 studios. Each faculty member will have his or her own office, and the latest technology will be incorporated into the two theaters that will be housed within the building.

Russell Jones, chair of the theater division, is enthusiastic about the project and the new theaters. "We are going to have a lovely proscenium stage, which opens like a picture frame to the audience," Jones said. The stage will have lots of space in the wings, trap doors and an elevator pit. In addition, there will be a 65-foot fly house, which is the area above the stage where the lighting and rigging for moving scenery are kept. The theater will seat 300 people.

The second theater is to be a studio theater, which is a smaller and more versatile space, seating approximate 80 to 130 people. The stage will be furnished with a 3-foot floor pit, that may be lowered or kept flesh with the rest of the stage.

But despite the improvements and technical innovations the new building is to offer, there are some who find the plan lacking in crucial areas. Rick Paul, chair of the art and design division, is concerned that the art and design program is limited by the new plans. "We are squeezed badly for space because there isn't enough money," Paul said.

Paul contends that the logic behind the design of the new building is fundamentally flawed. He states that the classroom space in the new building was determined by the current enrollment, which is restricted by the size of the current building. In this manner, the new design limits the program to its current size. "The plan doesn't allow for any future expansion," Paul said.

David Sigman, head of the department of visual and performing arts, said that although the plans may be limiting in some respects, in others there will be room to expand. "Overall, its approximately the same amount of space. I think the project has gone extremely well for the complexity of the project."

Yet, regardless of the positive and negative aspects of the proposed building, there is one benefit the facility is sure to provide. At present, the visual and performing arts department, which is composed of art and design, music, theater and dance divisions, is spread over many buildings across campus.

The new facility will bring all these divisions under one roof and into closer contact with one another.

"The opportunity to bring all of the academic arts under one building will be a wonderful educational opportunity for both the students and faculty," said Sigman.