Center for the Arts: building complex proposed
Footprint of the proposed Center for the Arts.
Conceptual site plan for U.Va.'s Center for the Arts, prepared by the Office of the Architect for the University.
A proposed Center for the Arts will make a dramatic change to the corner of Emmet Street and Ivy Road.
The L-shaped complex will house a performing arts center, fronting on Emmet, and the University Art Museum, fronting on Ivy, with a common entry space at the intersection linking the two. The Best Western Cavalier Inn will be demolished, as will three University-owned buildings across Emmet Street.
The new facility will allow the museum to host nationally touring exhibitions and display a larger percentage of its 10,000-object collection than is now possible at the Bayly building. A sculpture garden will take advantage of natural features in the adjacent wetland landscape.
The performance center will house a 1,600-seat concert hall — more than twice Old Cabell Hall’s capacity — making possible performances by touring theater and dance companies and artists-in-residence that will enhance the project’s educational mission.
Plans call for extensive site improvements and landscaping across Emmet Street from the arts center. After the existing structures on the east side of Emmet Street are razed, an all-weather intramural playing surface will be installed on Carr’s Hill Field.
The $91 million Center for the Arts project, which encompasses more than 127,000 gross square feet, will be financed with private support. In April 2003, Carl and Hunter Smith of Charlottesville made a $22 million challenge gift for the center and provided a gift to create the marching band.