UCLA’S ART SCHOOL TO BUILD $31 MILLION STUDIO COMPLEX WITH MAJOR DONATION

The University of California Los Angeles’s School of the Arts and Architecture is planning to add a $31 million studio complex that will be slated to open in 2019, Christopher Knight of the LA Times reports.

The plan for the 75,000-square-foot building for graduate students was originally conceived in 2011, but was shelved due to a lack of funds. The project is being revived after a major donation was gifted to the school by art dealer Margo Leavin. While the amount of the gift has not been revealed, sources have guessed that the funding might be about $20 million.

Leavin, the former owner of Margo Leavin Gallery in West Hollywood, said that after her retirement in 2012, she wanted to give back to the city in which she operated her business for forty-two years. An alumna of the university, Leavin said, “I began to realize that I could also make just one significant bequest. Artists are the backbone of the community, so I wanted it to be something that would have a real impact on that.”

The new facility will replace a run-down building in Culver City. The current studio is cramped and also boasts a leaky roof and lack of ventilation. “I was shocked,” Leavin said after she toured it last year. Johnston Marklee & Associates’s design of the new complex will be a two-story structure featuring a translucent, polycarbonate roof—to introduce natural light—a covered entry portico, common areas, classroom spaces, an apartment for visiting artists, a gallery, and a communal kitchen and garden. Construction for the project should begin next year.