Studio Arts Building

Project Description

The Studio Arts Building will bring together a variety of programs and support units currently scattered around the UMass Amherst campus. This new facility will foster a multidisciplinary approach to art, a trend that has been embraced by the Art Department through the development of its curriculum. Housing both faculty and student work and studio spaces, the building will enable more interaction and collaboration, thereby increasing the intensity and the quality of the learning experience. The support shops within the facility will be state-of-the-art; removing limitations placed on students by current inadequate and outdated facilities.

The building is organized around a central Commons space that serves as the primary entrance point into the building. This space on the Courtyard Level, features a generous stair and elevator, and visually connects the two most populated levels encouraging chance meetings and collaboration. The Commons space will be a gathering space for students and faculty, and will also serve as a venue for special events such as art shows, guest lectures and other special events. As food may be served here from time to time, a small service kitchen is provided, and storage spaces containing a variety of tables and chairs will also enable the space to be set up in many configurations.

Primary teaching and shops functions occur on the Courtyard Level. This level will be filled with natural daylight, and features high, open spaces. The shops are located in the East wing, and feature outdoor patio work spaces, and direct access to screened loading and trash areas. Special ventilation systems will ensure that dust, pollutants and excess heat will be appropriately exhausted from the building, fostering a safe and healthy working environment. Flexible instructional studios for painting, sculpture and ceramics are located on this floor, convenient for non-major and undergraduate students. In addition, a number of faculty and graduate student studios are located on this level, increasing the activity and the security of the facility.

The Street Level is a half-floor on the West wing of the building that provides a central location for photography and printmaking of all kinds. The Digital Studio will provide a high-end computer graphics resource to the students, and a new Instructional Darkroom will enable the department to expand their curriculum and offer better services to students interested in photographic arts.

The Upper Level houses most of the individual studio spaces for both students and faculty, in both single and double-occupancy spaces (for faculty and Graduate Students) and in two large open studios fitted with flexible partitions for the undergraduate students. Another large teaching studio and a critique/lecture room round out the uses on this floor.

Architecturally, the building gracefully inhabits a prominent site, one that is considered by many to be a "gateway" to the campus. The grounds around the building will be lush and green, with preserved mature trees and lawn areas that will serve as outdoor studio spaces. Large ground-level windows will allow passersby to glimpse the activity and products produced there. The materials, scale and craft of detail of the building pay homage to the Beaux-Arts structures that populate the area, while simultaneously indicating its contemporary, artistic function through fairly aggressively angular geometry. Sloped roofs, typical of older buildings, have been reinterpreted as contemporary forms, graced with prominent chimneys that exhaust spent air and excess heat from the studios and shops.

The building will be one of the "greenest" constructed on the campus, utilizing sustainable building materials, operable windows for natural ventilation, and a variety of energy and water conserving measures.  
 

Click Here for the latest Construction Advisories