Universities have come a long way
from old-school, cookie-cutter
studies in drab institutional design.

literally blur the boundaries between community, students, creative disciplines, artists and floors, yielding an airy building with some refreshing and unexpected visual spatial links.

the opening is scheduled for 2011. the Creative arts Center is staged to be “an inventive, cutting-edge facility whose dynamic design reflects its exciting programming,” according to a representative of the university. basically, this translates to a 36,000-square-foot building that will house a 200-seat recital hall, a state-of-the-art recording studio and multipurpose production studios (among other uses). Using a variety of clean, modern materials (think equal parts sheer glass and warm woods), the space is intended to

RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN Chace Center Museum of Art, 2008 José Rafael Moneo, Architect from budding graphic designers to printmakers to jewelry and textile artists, america’s great visual iconoclasts of tomorrow have flocked to the rhode island School of design since 1877. an appreciation and understanding of all things aesthetic is a common thread at riSd—a quality that extends to the school’s surrounding community. hence, its new multiuse arts education facility, the Chace Center, had to respond to and complement the school’s core values as well as its storied presence in the arts-obsessed city of Providence, r.i. Created as a crossroads for all people—students, faculty, staff, alumni and museum visitors—the Chace Center offers a mutual and visual touchstone for art appreciation.