News

Phase I of our campus modernization and unification project – the complete renovation of our Joseph McCullough Center for the Visual Arts – was in full swing all summer. To give construction workers free rein, the building was closed to the public and the staff members who normally work in McCullough took up temporary residence in the Reinberger galleries of our Gund Building on East Boulevard.

The pace was intense. Construction workers:

• Replaced more of the single-pane windows with insulated, energy-efficient windows. The only windows left to be replaced are those on the west elevation, which will be replaced when a new building is constructed on that side during Phase II.

• Connected recently installed air conditioning throughout the building so that, when they finish, the entire structure will have AC for the first time in its 96-year history.

• Re-configured space throughout the building by demolishing some internal walls and constructing others. The overall reconfiguration of space created seven new computer labs, six new technology-enabled classrooms, and new facilities for photography, T.I.M.E.-digital arts, biomedical art, ceramics, and sculpture.

• Painted, installed carpeting, painstakingly restored historic plaster columns and molding, and installed high-tech equipment.

Throughout the fall semester, less-disruptive finishing work is continuing in the McCullough building, according to Howard Weiner, director of facilities management. The finishing work includes more painting; drywall taping; electrical fixture installation; some plumbing; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning work in areas that will not be used until the entire campus is unified at the McCullough site at the conclusion of Phase II.

“As a result of the intense productivity of summer 2010, we are now on track to complete the McCullough renovation by the end of the calendar year and we are looking forward to Phase II, the construction of a new building immediately west of and fully inter-connected to the McCullough building,” said CIA President Grafton J. Nunes. “We’ll break ground on Phase II as early in 2011 as fundraising allows.”