Art

Tyler School of Art is moving.

By Roberta Fallon
Add Comment Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Oct. 15, 2008

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Home styled: Large windows look over the city in the new Tyler School of Art building.

The shiny new Tyler School of Art building at 12th and Norris streets looks like an office-park jewel--all glass, steel and brick. But don't be deceived by the boxy exterior; the three-story, 234,000-square-foot replacement for the 73-year-old art school's Elkins Park campus is no palace for bean counters. Inside are wide-open spaces, bright colors, soaring ceilings, a sleek cafe and a new L-shaped gallery. Of course there are state-of-the-art classrooms, studios, kilns, tools, glass-blowing stations, ventilation systems and, for the first time, offices for Tyler faculty.

I took a hard-hat tour of the $75 million building in September with Gregory Murphy, Tyler assistant dean for development, and Temple spokesperson Hillel Hoffmann. The third-floor painting studios with floor-to-ceiling windows look north over treetops and rowhouses. Fill that building with artists, sprinkle a little sawdust in the woodshop and splatter some paint in the studios and the new Tyler will thrum like the art incubator it's always been--only now, transformed by the buzz of the city.

As a reminder of the suburban space they're leaving, the architectural plans include a grassy courtyard, which will be the largest green space on Temple's urban campus. The yard will be landscaped with plants harvested from the school's former home in Elkins Park.

The formal dedication for the building is March 25, 2009, but the school's departments and equipment will be moved this fall and students will begin classes in January. Temple Gallery in Old City will stay open through February with exhibitions and through April with special experimental events, according to Sheryl Conkelton, gallery director. In late March Temple Gallery programming--including M.F.A. exhibitions--will begin in the Tyler building.

With this move, Tyler's 1,500 students will be united in one location. Until now, half of the students have been stationed on main campus--in art education, art history and architecture. The addition of Tyler students, faculty and staff means longer lines at the food trucks, bookstore and Starbucks, as well as continued parking and housing problems for the already crowded campus. This is an ongoing dilemma for Temple's administration. The number of students living on campus has nearly tripled since 2002.

Most of the money for the building came through state funding, though fundraising for the big building is continuing. Both the Connolly Foundation and the Gilroy and Lillian Roberts Foundation recently donated large sums of money to the university for this project.

While there will surely be some growing pains as the art school transitions from its suburban solitude, one thing is certain: Tyler School of Art is moving on up.

For more on the Philadelphia art scene go to fallonandrosof.blogspot.com

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