Future creative center not for the typical all-nighter

Monday, September 18, 2006

By CHRISTINA OCCHIPINTI

Paint, record, practice, dance and sing -- at any hour of the day.

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week is the theme of Manhattanville College’s future Center for the Creative Arts, school president Richard A. Berman said.

“The concept (at Manhattanville) is that we have driven everything on the campus to be student-oriented and student-driven,” Berman said. “We wanted a different type of student center that is driven with the theme that all the spaces will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Located between the Sandra Rose Pavilion/Benziger Hall and Founders Hall, the 30,580-square-foot, three-story Center for the Creative Arts will house the teaching and performing spaces, school radio station, student newspaper, recording studio, television studio and control room, along with a fitness center, cafe, gallery and an open lobby, Berman said.

“It will form a new lower quad for students to hang out,” Berman said. “It makes a nice 24 hours a day, seven days a week activity (area), along with our library that’s open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as well.”

Greg Palmer, vice president of operations for Manhattanville College, said the construction on the “$12 million project” began earlier this summer and should be completed by next fall.

“The construction started in June 2006 and we’re anticipating it taking 15 months so it should be completed by September 2007,” Palmer said. “The location of building on the campus was in a tough spot for utilities … so the first three months of (construction) has been relocating and installing new utilities for the building and other buildings on campus.”

“We’re hoping to start the foundation work this month and have the skin of the building up by December, so (the crew) can start working inside before the weather gets bad.”

The Center for the Creative Arts was designed by Peter Gisolfi Associates, an architectural and landscape architectural firm in Hastings-on-Hudson. Palmer said the center was designed to blend in aesthetically with all of the buildings on the college campus.

“A lot of the buildings (on campus) have stone exterior, so this will be combination of brick and metal panels,” Palmer said. “The front of building … will be more stone and the rear of building … will be just about all glass. We try as much as possible to (have new buildings) fit in with rest of the campus and look similar to the other buildings here.”

Berman said Manhattanville is financing the construction of the center through a capital campaign, the first in the history of the Purchase-based college.

“We are now well into (our capital campaign) and we hope to conclude it a year from now during the 2007-2008 academic year,” Berman said. “We hope to reach $15 million, and we are currently at $12.8 million (in fund raising), so we are ahead of schedule.”

The construction of Manhattanville’s latest project follows the completion of the college’s Environmental Park, a LEED-certified noninvasive classroom made of glass and sustainable harvested wood. Palmer said the concept of the Environmental Park began five years ago.

The Environmental Park is home to a “living machine,” which demonstrates several ecological principles and is vital to environmental studies program. The dedication of the classroom building will be held Sept. 26 at 11:30 a.m.

As for the Center for Creative Arts, Berman said, “It’s what the students want and when you talk to the faculty they say it’s what students need to enhance their academic experience.”