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Tyler School of Art Relocation Information
Click to
view the Temple Times Article, In April 1997, Temple University's Provost recommended that consideration be given to relocating Tyler School of Art Elkins Park programs to Temple's Main Campus. In December 2002, the State of Pennsylvania approved an allocation of $58 million to provide the cornerstone support for the relocation. In the spring of 2003, the architectural firm Deborah Berke & Associates completed a program plan. In May 2003, the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office announced Temple University’s acquisition of a city parcel as the site of the new Tyler School of Art. The Philadelphia City Planning Commission at a hearing on May 20, 2003 approved an agreement between the Redevelopment Authority and Temple University. Award-winning architect Carlos Jimenez of Carlos Jimenez Studio in Houston, designer of some of the country’s premier art education facilities and exhibition spaces, has been signed to design Temple’s new Tyler School of Art building on Main Campus. You can find more information on Carlos Jimenez below, as well as on the Temple press release and interview with the architect, which is available at this website: http://www.temple.edu/temple_times/1-27-05/jimenez.html Where will the new Tyler School of Art be located? The new Tyler School of Art will be located on Temple’s Main Campus. The Tyler building site is due west and our building will occupy parts of Parking Lot 4 &5 located on the Northwest corner of 12th and Norris Street. This is great news as we will now be right next door to the Boyer College of Music but still very close to the Architecture Program! Our direct adjacency to Music and the School of Communications and Theatre will enhance our mutual interest in interdisciplinary projects and create a unified mini arts campus along Norris Street. Will the new facility be a renovation of a current building or new construction? Temple will build a new, state-of-the-art facility that will feature 225,000 gross square feet of studio, classroom, and gallery spaces, which more than doubles the amount of building space currently available on the Elkins Park campus. What is the projected move in date? While it is nearly impossible to provide a firm timetable for new construction of this magnitude, the project is moving forward on time. We anticipate a late fall 2008 completion date, with our first BFA and MFA classes beginning in the new building in January 2009. Information on the construction timetable can be found at the Temple University Office of Facilities Management website: http://www.temple.edu/facilities/dctyler.htm. You can also see project progression photos on the Tyler website at www.temple.edu/tyler. Who is the selected architect? Carlos Jimenez has been chosen as the architect for the new Tyler building. Today he is recognized as one of the country's top young architects. A native of Costa Rica, Jimenez moved to the United States in 1974, graduated from the University of Houston School of Architecture in 1981, and established his own office in 1982. He has taught widely and held a number of endowed chair positions, including the first Favrot Chair in Architecture at Tulane University, Harvard University’s Eliot Noyes Visiting Design Professor, and the Friedman Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. He is now a tenured professor at Rice University. He has won awards for excellence in design from Architectural Record, Progressive Architecture, and the Architectural League of New York, and has exhibited his work in museums and galleries across the country. His principal built works include the Houston Fine Art Press, the Administration/Junior School Building for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Spencer Studio Art Building at Williams College, the Cummins Engine Child Development Center in Columbus, Indiana, and the New Art Center at DePauw University. His work is widely published, including two books and four monographic issues.
“Tyler is one of the finest art schools in the country,”
said Jimenez, owner and principal in charge of design at Carlos Jimenez
Studio and tenured professor at Rice University School of Architecture.
“Relocating this vibrant coalition of artists and students from their
suburban setting to a new urban site is a pioneering opportunity. How will the building be financed? The State has allocated $58 million, Temple has allocated $7 million and the remaining $10 million will be raised from outside sources. Why is it advantageous to relocate Tyler to the Main Campus? Tyler has approximately 850 BFA, MFA, and MEd students on the Elkins Park campus. The buildings, however, were constructed for a student body of approximately 500, which means that we have seriously outgrown our current facilities. The relocation will provide state-of-the-art facilities in the center of a major research university that is actively engaged in campus revitalization including the opening of the Liacouras Center, several new dormitory buildings, the Tuttleman Learning Center, renovation of the Student Activities Center, and a proposed new building for The Fox School of Business and Management. The relocation will position Tyler in the center of this campus revitalization. It will add breadth to the school’s studio and academic programs by giving students access to a wealth of academic courses in many other schools and colleges, fostering collaborations with other arts students from the Ester Boyer College of Music/Department of Dance and the School of Communications and Theatre, as well as participation in inter-mural athletics and the active campus life of Temple University. Tyler has a national reputation. How will the School retain its unique identity? Over its nearly 70-year history, Tyler School of Art has emerged as one of the premier art and design educational institutions in the United States. The success of the school is due to the founding ideals set forth by Dean Boris Blai, based on John Dewey’s philosophy of progressive education, namely, that students experience all aspects of the visual arts before choosing a major and that they be taught by a faculty of practicing and accomplished artists. Tyler has always been much more than bricks and mortar. Tyler is a community of highly talented students and a faculty of artists and scholars working within a small learning community. Tyler School of Art is not just a location; it is an amalgamation of people, programs, and spirit. We will bring our commitment to students, our emphasis on personal attention, our dedicated faculty and staff, and the spirit that all of our students have experienced on the Elkins Park campus with us as we embark on our future on Temple’s Main Campus. As we design our new building and curriculum, We will look to Temple’s Fox School of Business and Management, Esther Boyer College of Music and Beasley School of Law as examples of other schools in the University that have cultivated unique individual identities and national reputations while being active members of the Temple community.
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What exactly does the relocation mean for Tyler School of Art? Tyler School of Art is comprised of six departments. Currently, three of these departments, Crafts, Graphic Arts and Design, and Painting Drawing and Sculpture, are located on the Tyler Elkins Park campus and three, Architecture Art and Art Education, and Art History, are located on Temple's Main Campus. Tyler will move its Elkins Park programs to Temple’s Main Campus uniting all of Tyler School of Art on one campus. How will the relocation affect the Tyler Departments already on the Main Campus? The relocation of the Tyler Elkins Park Campus programs will help to unite all of Tyler's departments on the Main Campus. The new building will primarily house BFA and MFA studio spaces, administrative spaces, galleries, and meeting spaces. Students who currently take Architecture, Art, Art Education, and Art History courses on the Main Campus will have the opportunity to easily access lectures and exhibitions by visiting artists, student exhibitions, and other collegial activities. Temple has made a commitment to address the current renovation needs of these departments. Will Tyler retain all of its current majors when all of its programs are located on the Main campus? Yes. Tyler currently has eleven major areas of study: ceramics/glass, fibers, graphic and interactive design, jewelry/metals/CAD-CAM, painting/drawing, photography, printmaking, sculpture, art, art history, architecture and art education. All of these majors will be available when Tyler moves to Main Campus and students will realize significant space increases in the new facility. The new Photography studios will include both digital studios and wet labs. Additionally, Main Campus resources will provide the opportunity to build new and inter-disciplinary arts majors. Will Tyler change its name as a result of the move? In 1934, Mrs. Stella Elkins Tyler donated her estate to Temple University to be used as an art school. The school was named the Tyler School of Fine Arts. In the 1970s, to be more responsive to new programs that were added to the Tyler curriculum, the school began referring to itself as Tyler School of Art. We will always retain the Tyler name. Where will Tyler students live on the Main Campus? Approximately 4,500 Temple students choose to live on-campus. All of Temple’s residence halls are convenient to academic and administrative areas of campus and offer an environment which supports and complements students’ academic endeavors. There are currently eight residence halls on Temple’s Main Campus, many of which opened within the last five years and offer state-of-the-art amenities. In addition, Temple University has built and is continuing to build new partnerships with Philadelphia corporations to provide additional living spaces adjacent to the Main campus. Many of these spaces are currently housing 3rd and 4th year undergraduates. To get more information about housing on Main Campus, go to the following site: http://atlas.ocis.temple.edu/housing. You can also use the site to link to Temple’s off-campus housing site. Where will students, faculty, and visitors park on Main Campus? Temple provides parking services to accommodate a variety of payment options. Besides providing convenient daily or monthly parking and shuttle bus service for students and employees, Parking Services is happy to assist with the special parking needs. For more information about parking on Main Campus, please refer to the following website: http://www.temple.edu/parking/main.htm. In addition, SEPTA provides a great deal of access to the Main campus from all areas of southeastern PA. For more information on accessing the university through public transportation, please go to this link: http://www.septa.org What will be done with the Elkins Park campus? While there are no current plans for the Elkins Park campus, Temple will continue to maintain the property. What is Tyler doing to prepare for the move? In anticipation of the relocation, the Tyler faculty has been engaged for a number of years in a series of discussions, facilities planning, and equipment cost estimating. These efforts will provide the conceptual and practical framework for curriculum renewal and a strategic plan that will guide Tyler through the historic years ahead. We are committed to retaining the best of Tyler, which includes the current size of the school, the close working relationship between faculty and students, and the school’s spirit of community. We are further committed to maintaining Tyler’s highly competitive and portfolio-based admissions process for the BFA/MFA professional degrees and the high GPA and other academic requirements for entry into our other degree programs. We also recognize that art schools in the 21st century will be significantly different from existing models and that the relocation of the Tyler Elkins Park programs offers the opportunity to not only continue on as a great art school, but to become respected as innovators of a new art school model. Who should I call with other questions concerning the Tyler relocation? Academic issues: Sharyn O'Mara, Associate Dean/Graduate Program Director, 215-782-2718 Admissions Issues: Carmina Cianciulli, Assistant Dean of Admissions, 215-777-9090 Alumni and Development issues: Gregory Murphy, Director of Development, 215-204-2363 |
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