Past to the Future
For 22 years crowds have flocked to one place on the Utah State University campus. They go there to learn, to be entertained, to be inspired and to enjoy the open beauty of the well-designed space.
The building is the Chase Fine Arts Center, also known as the FAV building.
“The building makes a nice corner here on campus. It adds a sense of life to this side. People can identify with it,” said Richard Toth, a professor in the Landscape Architecture and Environment Planning (LAEP) department.
The Fine Arts building was built in two phases, Toth said. Phase one was built in 1978 and included the theater and music departments and the Kent Concert Hall. LAEP and the art department moved in during
phase two in 1980.
Toth said there was a national search for the architect of phase two. They chose Edward Larrebee Barnes with a firm in New York City.
“They were asked to try to stay in the vernacular of phase one, which he did. The brick and concrete carried over from phase two,” Toth said.
Barnes took into account each department’s need for space and equipment and met them well within budget at about $4.2 million, Toth said.
“The innovation in the building was that he gave us all the space we requested inside a very limited budget,” Toth said.
Before it was housed in the FAV building, LEAP was “in desperate need of a new building,” Toth said. The building it was in was condemned.
“The building brought all the arts together. Both the fine arts and the applied arts are housed in a nice complex of buildings,” Toth said.
Before he completed phase two, Barnes was asked to design the museum also,” Toth said.
“A person is hard pressed to see where one part of the building stops and the other starts,” Toth said.
Some of the original features about the Fine Arts building are the indoor ramps allowing access to both phases and the unique design of the building itself, Toth said.
The art studios were very carefully placed at an angle to give them optimal lighting conditions, Toth said. The walls between them can be pushed open to create one big room where students of all levels can work together.
Toth said the views from the windows look upon scenic landscapes of the surrounding mountains. Even the ends of the halls have large windows that give the building a sense of openness.
It’s not all perfect – Toth said the heating and cooling systems aren’t very efficient. And an aspect Gregory Schulte, a professor in the Art department, would like to change is the “sterile hallways” – the lack of permanent artwork in the building.
“Everything is continuously white,” Schulte said. “They paint over any little mark as soon as it is made. Students should be exposed to permanently installed artwork.”
Schulte is teaming up with seven graduate students to create a seven-panel mural in a stairwell of the building.
Each student will be assigned a panel with specific requirements for optimal visual effect, Schulte said. Beyond these requirements there are no restrictions placed on each artist’s creativity.
The final product will be a 104-by-136-inch work in burnt umber and white.
“There could be all kinds of unexpected combinations,” Schulte said. “The divisions and the monochromatic color scheme will unify it.”
The project will be funded by a Mary Eccles Caine Grant, the same type that funded the permanent sculptures put on campus last year.
“It’s starting. I hope it will lead to future projects with students. It’s a real motivating factor to have some stimulation done by fellow students,” Schulte said.