Creativity celebration

Andrew Edwards

Set to the tune of jazz, chorale and chamber music, plans to

transform the Arts Plaza at UC Irvine were unveiled on Sunday at a

groundbreaking ceremony with the project’s designer, noted architect

Maya Lin.

Best known for designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in

Washington, D.C., Lin was chosen to renovate the plaza about five

years ago. Her design aims to transform the courtyard surrounded by

the university’s arts buildings into an open-air celebration of

creativity.

“The whole Arts Plaza really focuses back on how art is a part of

everyday life,” Lin said.

Like many buildings at UC Irvine, most of the buildings at the

Arts Plaza have exteriors of beige brickwork. Lin’s design will leave

the buildings in place, but will add a mixture of high-tech features

and greenery in hopes of making the Arts Plaza more inviting.

“It’s kind of like this sea of concrete; it really needed help,”

Lin said.

UC Irvine Chancellor Ralph Cicerone likened the current courtyard,

surrounded by utilitarian-looking buildings, to a “medieval

fortress.”

Cicerone and others involved with the project said they hope the

redesigned plaza will become a popular meeting place for students,

faculty and art lovers.

“It will be a beckoning destination that people can find in the

first place, and then want to come back,” Cicerone said.

To make the plaza more inviting, Lin said she plans to use red,

blue and green lights to illuminate the walkways leading to the

plaza. The Sunday ceremony included a performance by UC Irvine

soprano Stephanie Feder, who was accompanied by the school’s Men in

Blaque chorale ensemble. Two student groups, the Rawlins Quartet, a

chamber music ensemble, and the Jazz Quartet, also performed at the

event.

Lin’s favorite components in her design include plans for a

screening room and a drawing room, which are both open open-air areas

of the plaza. The first area is set to be an outdoor amphitheater

with grass seating for student films and plays.

“ I am looking to be able to have the possibility of summer

evening festivals and performances,” said Nohema Fernandez, dean of

the university’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts.

Plans for the drawing room feature “whispering benches,” which are

to feature speakers for playing music and poetry as plaza visitors

sit around a water table that Lin said was among her favorite works

of her career.

Lin collaborated with landscape architect Pamela Burton, and the

pair came up with a plan to minimize the use of paving and use

fragrant plants like orange blossoms, rosemary and lavender as

natural contrasts to the plaza’s electric lights and video screens.

The expected cost for the plaza is $5.6 million. The project is

scheduled to be built by the beginning of the next school year, and

second-year arts student Jack Bartlett said he looks forward to being

able to relax in the drawing room.

“I think it just seems like a nice place to go to, a nice quiet

area,” he said.