Construction on the Arts Building at the University of California, Riverside began in September 1998 and continued through May 2001. Serving as a physical and symbolic gateway between the community and UCR campus, the building will be home to the dance, music, theatre, art history, and studio art departments. It will include dance studios, music rehearsal and screening rooms, performance spaces, a photographic and film shooting studio, painting and sculpture studios, computer laboratories and an arts library.

Architectural features: The building sections vary in height, with a four-story segment to east, next to West Campus Drive, stepping down to a single-story segment along a pedestrian mall on the building's east end. The building's design of stucco, brick, glass and steel structure, with angular features, ramps, stairs and ziggurat-like appearance, won the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects' Unbuilt Project Merit Award in 1994.

Total assignable space: 55,150 square feet

Gross square footage: 99,910 square feet (includes exhibit and gathering spaces)

Building cost: $18,235,000 (building only)

Construction cost: $20,340,000 (includes site development and utilities)

Total project cost: $26,543,000 (includes furnishing, all fees, testing, surveying, etc.)

Funding source: State of California

Design Architects: Annie Chu, as a consultant to the architectural firm of Israel, Callas, Shortridge Design Associates of Los Angeles

Contractor: Amec, previously MorseDiesel International, San Francisco





July 1990: University of California regents approve the construction of an 113,400-square-foot Fine Arts Building as part of a long-range campus expansion plan. The building was to be built in three phases beginning with a 92,000-square-foot segment to begin construction in 1996 and be ready for occupancy in late 1998.

1993: The Los Angeles architectural firm of Israel, Callas, Shortridge wins bid to design the complex. Lead partner Frank Israel excelled at designing unique structures for independent movie production houses. He and junior partner Annie Chu would design the UCR Fine Arts Building.

August 1994: New York Times Architecture critic Herbert Muschamp praises Frank Israel's design calling it "an interpretive formal synthesis of desert terrain and the disjointed urbanism that has grown up there," and "a ziggurat for the year 2000."

September 1994: Authorities approve the environmental impact report for the Fine Arts Building.

November 1994: The legislature pushes back funding for the project because of a lack of money in the state budget. The project's funding is postponed from the 1995-96 fiscal year to the 1998-99 fiscal year. UCR scales down the project to 55,000 square feet.

December 1994: Israel, in collaboration with Chu and partner Barbara Callas, win the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects' Unbuilt Project Merit Award for the building at UCR.

June 1996: Frank Israel dies. Chu and Callas continue with the project.

February 1997: Project is nearly killed during budgetary belt tightening when the state legislative analyst argues the legislature should focus on retrofitting existing buildings to meet earthquake standards rather than erecting new structures.

May 1997: UCR Chancellor Raymond Orbach convinces the legislature not to drop the project or build it in phases. He convinces the legislative analyst the project is needed because Olmsted Hall, where many arts departments are housed, will need to close for seismic retrofitting. The legislature agrees, and sets a construction start date for early 1998.

August 1997: The legislature approves nearly $24 million for the Arts Building at UCR.

November 1997: UCR officials praise assemblymen Bruce Thompson, R-Fallbrook, and Rod Pacheco, R-Riverside, for their work in getting the money approved.

September 1998: Construction begins.

May 11, 2001: Grand opening of the Arts Building at UCR.