Arts Center site chosen

Painting, music, film production, pottery and photography classes will soon find new homes in the Arts Education Center, being built on the OCCC campus.

During the March 20 Board of Regents meeting, preliminary plans for the Arts Center — the last of three major construction projects — was approved.

Triad Design Group will now begin drawing contract documents, said Walt Joyce, Triad Design Group architect.

Construction will begin in September, after Arts Festival Oklahoma, and will be complete in June 2008, he said.

The Arts Education Center will be built just outside the main entrance to the Arts and Humanities building, on the grounds used by Arts Festival Oklahoma. It will be a two-part project, Joyce said.

Between the Arts and Humanities building and Arts Education Center, a plaza — similar to the one currently located between the main building and library — will house landscaping and lounging areas for students.

Phase I of the project will focus on building 28 classrooms and labs, faculty offices and support space such as restrooms and closets, Joyce said. The first part of the project will cost $8,223,946.

“The funds are from the Oklahoma Higher Education Capital Bond Issue the Legislature passed last year,” said Donna Nance, Business and Finance vice president.

Phase II will be a 1,000-seat theater, Joyce said.

Paul Sechrist, OCCC president, said Phase II would cost about $14 million. Funds have not yet been acquired for the second part of the project.

Sechrist said the areas currently used for the programs being moved during Phase I will be remodeled into general academic multimedia classrooms and may also house the Pioneer student newspaper.

The location of the new building will force Arts Festival Oklahoma to find a new location on campus.

Joyce said he already has sketched a plan of a possible relocation for the event. The new location being discussed is at the corner of SW 74th Street and Regents Boulevard, outside of Faculty Circle.

Plans for the new building have been in the works for a couple of years, Sechrist said.

He said Stu Harvey, director of strategic planning, helped Joyce address the needs and concerns of all faculty, staff and students when the initial planning for the three construction projects took place.

When designing a building, Joyce takes everything into consideration, Sechrist said.

Joyce said asking faculty and staff about their current and future needs is important in spatial planning.

“I want to build a place that will be functional now and well into the future.”

Sechrist said he is confident everyone will enjoy the Arts Education Center.

“Walt is very good at listening to what we need and then putting it into a drawing,” he said.

The two other construction projects are the Robert P. Todd Science, Engineering and Mathematics Center, currently under construction above the existing science and math area, and slated for completion by fall 2007, and a Health Professions Education Center that is scheduled for completion in January 2008.

All three are part of OCCC’s Vision for the Future, Sechrist said.

Architectural renderings of the Arts Education Center are posted at www.occc.edu/pioneer.

Editor Christiana Kostura can be reached at editor@occc.edu.