Fine Arts finds new, blue home

From a distance, the new temporary site of the Graduate School of Fine Arts near Hill Field looks more like a big, blue barn than a place where people go to create works of art. But for many fine arts students and faculty members, the structure -- nicknamed Blau Haus for both its color and the early 20th Century design movement -- gives aspiring artists just the right atmosphere, even if the walls are made of plywood. "It's kind of a wonderful place," Acting GSFA Chair Leonard Stokes said last night. "It's new. It's ours. There's some genuine affection for it." The $1 million structure, located at 33rd and Chestnut streets, was built last summer so that the GSFA could vacate Smith Hall, which will be demolished to make way for a new science facility. The building is intended to house the department for no more than five years, and the University plans to tear it down once the GSFA finds a permanent home, Vice President for Facilities Management Arthur Gravina said last night. Gravina said the GSFA will probably remain in the temporary structure for "a few years" before moving to the Franklin Building Annex, which currently houses Physical Plant. He said the University is hoping to move Physical Plant to a University-owned building at 3025 Walnut Street. Once that move is completed, the annex will be renovated to prepare for GSFA. Unlike permanent buildings on campus, the temporary structure uses cheap materials for such things as windows, has an unsophisticated heating and cooling system and is covered with plywood instead of brick or limestone, Gravina said. Besides keeping costs low, the University used cheap materials to avoid giving anyone the idea that the structure could become the interim home for some other group or department once GSFA moves out, Gravina said. "I can predict that there will be someone pressuring us to use it for temporary space for another program," he said. "We're going to try not to have that happen." But Gravina stressed that the building meets all fire and safety codes, adding that the University obtained necessary permits from the city prior to construction. Gravina said the building's short-term nature gave the GSFA the freedom to paint the exterior blue with red trim -- the University's colors -- and to paint the foundry out back bright yellow -- to complete the trio of primary colors. The interior of the A-frame building includes both individual studios, which are used primarily by graduate students, and a large open space in the center, where undergraduates receive instruction in disciplines like painting and sculpting. Susie Steele, a first year sculpture graduate student, said she likes her current studio better than those in Smith Hall because the new structure has better lighting and is more spacious. Steele, who was working on a large wooden sculpture of a mandrake flower yesterday, said the most common complaint she has heard is that the structure is too far from other campus buildings. Stokes said his only problem with the building is its poor ventilation, adding that if the University can find a way to correct the problem, "we couldn't be happier." Stokes credited Bob Slutzky, the former GSFA chairperson, for working with the University and architects to get the structure built in time for the start of the current academic year. Becky Young, a fine arts lecturer at the University for 17 years, said the new building has made her life easier because she used to have a darkroom in Smith Hall, a classroom in Meyerson Hall and an office in the Morgan Building. "For me, it's been great," she said last night. "I have a much better darkroom and a class[room] right beside it."