City Gives Approval for Construction
Contact: Ed Taylor, Director of Marketing & Communications 608-663-2333
Madison, Wis. (January 25, 2011) – The City of Madison has approved plans for Edgewood College to proceed with construction of a new Visual and Theatre Arts Center on campus. The planned facility includes classroom, gallery, studio, and theatre space. The 44,000 square-foot, $11.5 million facility is expected to be ready for students in August of 2012. Groundbreaking is planned for March of this year.
“We’re blessed to have high-quality programs in our Art and Theatre Arts Departments,” President Dan Carey said. “With a growing number of majors and minors and facilities that are clearly inadequate, a new facility has been identified as the top priority by our Board of Trustees and administration. The completion of a new Visual and Theatre Arts Center is the key to taking these programs to the next level.”
The new Center will be home to studio space dedicated to graphic design, drawing, painting, mixed media, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, advanced web design, animation and multimedia. Plans also include a specialized laboratory-learning classroom for Art Therapy and Art Education programming. The College is one of a very few institutions in Wisconsin that offers an Art Therapy major. In addition, the Center will house a professional, climate-controlled Art Gallery, with additional public spaces for students to exhibit work.
Plans also include a new, flexible, theatre education classroom. The architectural designs allow for multiple configurations of this educational space for rehearsals and other co-curricular activities. Dedicated areas for costuming, set construction, storage, and dressing rooms are included. This classroom will also serve as a “black box” performance space, seating up to 125 patrons. It will replace the current Regina Theatre, which seats up to 80 patrons.
Reflecting the College’s commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability, the College will work toward LEED© certification for the new building – a process that begins with the earliest stages of construction.
The facility is designed by Potter Lawson, Inc., a Madison-based architecture firm. J.H. Findorff & Son, Inc. will construct the new building. Both firms have received numerous awards for sustainability in design and construction, including awards for projects previously completed on the Edgewood College campus. Dominican Hall, the College’s newest residence hall, was designed and built in partnership with these two companies. Dominican Hall is the first college or university residence hall in Wisconsin to be LEED-certified.
About Edgewood College
Located in Madison, WI, Edgewood College is a liberal arts Catholic college in the Dominican tradition, with 2,400 undergraduate and graduate students. It offers more than 40 academic and professional programs, including master’s degrees in business, education, nursing, and other fields, and a doctoral degree in educational leadership. For more information about Edgewood College, please visit http://www.edgewood.edu, or call Ed Taylor in Marketing & Communications at 608-663-2333.
