Frank Gehry Building

The winning design, with its swooping metal rooftops, integrates existing Fine Arts buildings into one design on the southeast corner of campus. Currently, the divisions of the fine arts school are housed in nearly 20 buildings around campus.

The new building and grounds are designed to link up with a new town center under construction in the town of Mansfield on the eastern side of Storrs Road.

"Our building tries to act as a gateway. ... It tries to connect the neighborhood by creating outdoor and indoor spaces and create more harmony." Newman said.

The front entrance will be open to the proposed village green, envisioned as a downtown shopping and residential district. A "path" will lead through the building and acts as a place for interchange among the painters, the artists, the musicians and theater people as well as students not in the arts. Another "path" on the building's second level will be encased in glass so that people passing through can view art, listen to music or watch a theatrical rehearsal without disturbing the students.

The design will include an opera hall, a new recital hall, a concert hall, photo and video production labs, galleries, studios, and even an animatronics lab and a foam rubber oven room for the puppetry program as well as a café flanking the building.

Construction is expected to start start in 2010. The building is designed to be built in phases allowing UConn to start construction before raising the full cost of the building. Frank Gehry, based in Santa Monica, and Herbert Newman of New Haven, are long-time friends who have wanted to collaborate on a project for years.