Toward the end of every spring semester, the lobby in our Pomerantz Art and Design Center comes alive with an end-of-year display created by graduating students from our Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design department. These exhibits—like all of the arresting art and design exhibits we situate in that space throughout the year—bring passersby to the windows of the building, fascinated by the displays on view.
Unfortunately, we do not have enough room on this campus to showcase all of the extraordinary work our students—or our faculty—produce. But here is the good news: we are about to embark on a renovation project that will offer vastly more space for our School of Art and Design to display its student and faculty work. The project, an expansion of the lobby in the Pomerantz Art and Design Center, will more than double the interior space to almost 4000 square feet. A smaller, closed-off gallery will be created out of the space currently occupied by members of the Continuing and Professional Studies staff. There even will be room for a catering kitchen to service events in the lobby, or Katie Murphy or the Great Hall.
Changes to the exterior of the building will be equally dramatic. The new lobby will stretch all the way to the 27th Street subway station, and the façade will be entirely sheathed in glass, offering even more opportunity for passersby to admire the work on display. The entrance will be on Seventh Avenue, creating a more welcoming institutional face to the community. It is an elegant design, and I believe its sweep and beauty will transform the Seventh Avenue streetscape.
This is one of 60 renovation projects to emerge from our revised facilities master plan and I am delighted to tell you that it will begin by the end of the summer. We hope its new doors will be open in another year.