The new building will simultaneously accommodate classrooms and new galleries of the Museum of Art, owned by the university. The collection of the latter includes more than 80,000 works of art, from Ancient Egypt to the present day.
The new building will stand on a hill surrounded by other buildings of the School of Design, founded in 1877. To visually connect it with neighboring buildings, Moneo used red brick as a building material, from which most of the buildings in the center of Providence are built. On the other hand, most of the surfaces of the walls of the Chase Center will be glass. Such proportions in the distribution of materials emerged in the last phase of the project: to meet the $ 43 million budget, the architect reduced the building from six floors to five, and removed the glass top of the building, which was supposed to glow in the dark like a lantern. Now, the Chase Center will be illuminated outside with ordinary searchlights at night.
Another change was the appearance of several additional windows, which will contrast in their transparency with the matte glazing of the main part of the building.
Around the building, at the parking place, an area with places for recreation of citizens and students will be created. Visitors will enter from there through the main entrance of the museum into the lobby, which will occupy about half of the area of the first floor of the building. The rest will be used as a lecture hall with 200 seats, which can also be used for concerts.
Those wishing to get to the museum will use an escalator or elevator that will take them to the third floor. The main part of the exhibition halls will be located there, including the main one - with an area of almost 400 sq. m. From the same tier it will be possible to cross the glass bridge to the main building of the museum - "Radeke Wing". Restoration workshops and laboratories will be set up on the fourth floor.
Auditoriums, workshops and galleries for exhibitions of students' work will be located on the second and fifth floors.
The construction is planned to be completed in autumn 2008.
