February 2, 2003

Campus forum to focus on Arts and Community Access Area Plan

By Scott Rappaport

UCSC will hold a campus forum on Friday, February 7, to discuss the Arts and Community Access Area Plan for new facilities to be built in the Performing Arts area of the university.

The meeting will take place from 10 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in the Music Recital Hall Lobby.

The Arts and Community Access Area Plan is a 25-year outlook for the number, kind, and placement of new facilities to be constructed in the general area between Porter College, McHenry Library, and the Music Center, a section of the campus that currently includes the Sinsheimer-Stanley Shakespeare Festival Glen, the Theater Arts Center, the Music Center, and the Elena Baskin Visual Art Center.

Potential projects for the site include 55,000 square feet of academic instruction and research space, improved parking facilities and circulation--with an emphasis on improving general public access to arts programs on campus, a major visual arts center including a gallery and museum, and a campus auditorium with a capacity in the vicinity of 1,500 seats.

A group of consultants, led by Thomas Hacker Architects Inc. and Walker Macy, will utilize information gathered from previous meetings with focus groups and campus planners to present a set of preliminary proposals at the forum. Faculty, staff, and students will be able to view suggested plans, offer comments, and ask questions about the plans.

"The point is to look at the site and ask what is its capacity to develop arts programs and community access programs sensitively and intelligently…and with a coherent vision of what it will look like at the end," noted Arts Division dean Edward Houghton."

Houghton added that it was important to phase in future development in this area of the campus smoothly and efficiently, anticipating the demographic needs of the campus in the future.

For additional information, visit the web site.

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