Eli Broad is not your average billionaire.
Unlike many of the world’s economic elite, Broad has a
penchant for giving his money away. And this fall, UCLA art
students will reap the benefits.
After a $23.2 million donation from Broad and his wife, Edythe,
that started two years of refurbishing at Dickson Hall ““
UCLA’s former home to the arts ““ a new art center
designed for students enrolled in the visual arts programs of the
School of the Arts and Architecture will be unveiled this fall.
“I wanted to see this No. 1 art school in America have the
No. 1 art center in America, which it richly deserves,” Broad
said.
The Edythe L. and Eli Broad Center, to be located across from
Melnitz Hall and designed by renowned architect Richard Meier
““ whose resume includes the Getty Center, the
Vatican-commissioned Jubilee Church in Rome, and even a beach house
for the Broad family ““ will boast several improvements to the
all-purpose design of Dickson Hall, which many had characterized as
too general to meet the very specific needs of art students.
“The spaces are now configured to serve the educational
mission of those departments,” said Christopher Waterman, the
dean of the School of the Arts and Architecture. “It’s
just different.”
“The kind of spaces you need in a chemistry department are
very different than the kind of spaces you might need for young
painters.”
Unlike Dickson Hall, which was primarily supported by cumbersome
and space-consuming interior sheer walls, the new art center makes
use of flying buttresses. The buttresses support the structure from
the outside, which was a common technique in medieval churches,
Waterman said.
The buttress technique, a studio aesthetic widely prized among
artists, will open the center’s classrooms to streams of
natural California light, which many artists believe has a
distinctive quality favorable for painting, Waterman continued.
“It used to be divided up into little, bitty small kind of
dark rooms, and it wasn’t really good for an art department
or a design department,” Waterman said. “So they can
remove all the sheer walls inside and open up the space and
suddenly you’ve got these big open spaces with sunlight
coming in.”
For the sake of increasing space, balconies will line the
exterior of the art center, creating hallway-like corridors that
students and faculty can use to get from place to place.
“In terms of square footage, it’s not that
we’ve gained that much more square footage; it’s more
about how you use the footage,” Waterman said.
The Broad Center will be highlighted by 42.5 tons of
weatherproof steel sculpted into a massive walk-through torqued
ellipse by renowned sculptor Richard Serra.
“Serra is the most important living sculptor in the world
today and the campus did not have any of his sculptures,”
Broad said. “I think it’s a great addition to the
campus’ sculpture collection.”
The decision to develop a new art center, which has cost nearly
$50 million to date, was sparked after the Broad Foundation
committed additional funds to those already expected from the
Federal Emergency Management Agency due to the 1994 Northridge
earthquake. The funds offered by Broad persuaded the university to
extensively refurbish Dickson Hall, rather than merely making the
needed structural repairs and changes, Waterman said.
“With a gift like this, the state will say “˜Hey gee,
this building is going up anyway, why don’t we go ahead and
invest to get it all the facilities it needs?'”
Waterman said. “Whereas the state couldn’t go,
“˜Let’s build an entirely new building,’ because
they don’t have that kind of money.”
Broad, characterized by Forbes.com as a self-made billionaire,
earned his fortune by developing SunAmerica and KB Home and
skyrocketing both companies to Fortune 500 status. He is currently
ranked as the 70th wealthiest person in the world, according to
Forbes.com. Broad, however, has for the most part changed his
focus, hanging up the business suit and power tie in favor of more
philanthropic efforts.
“The amount of money that supports the arts is really
minimal in this country, and the fact that we have private
individuals like Eli Broad who are willing to step forward and
share the results of their toil over many years is a terrific
thing,” Waterman said.
The Broad Foundation focuses on three areas: education reform,
scientific and medical research and promotion of the arts ““ a
field that especially interests Broad, an avid art collector.
“Man cannot live by bread alone. If you go through the
history of civilization, they are remembered for their art more
than anything else,” Broad said. “We hope to help
create the next generation of world-class artists.”
The opening of the Broad Center in the fall is expected by
faculty to serve as a sort of public arrival for the UCLA arts
program, adding prestige to its already strong reputation.
“It’s going to give a stellar home to a stellar
program,” said Barbara Drucker, chair of the art
department.