By Felix Hoover

For YourNewsColumbus

Posted 09-15-09

 

Part of the audience looked down on the dignitaries who handled ribbon cutting and other ceremonial duties Monday at the Columbus College of Art & Design.

Geography, not snobbery, prompted the downward gaze as several students watched the proceedings from their rooms in the Design Square Apartments, one of the two buildings dedicated on September 14 . The other was Design Studios on Broad, class space at 390 E. Broad St. Together the two buildings represent a "$25 million investment by CCAD in our center city," President Dennison W. Griffith said.

With the new apartments, about a third of the school's 1,300 students live on campus, he said.

Along with the Crane and Canzani centers and the campus quad, the new buildings anchor CCAD, Griffith said.

"They represent the completion -- in 11 years -- of our 25-year campus master plan," he said. "We wanted to build a lively, 24-hour campus and urban learning village, and we did it."

Several government officials addressed the crowd and took part in the ribbon-cutting, including Mayor Michael B. Coleman, Cong. Patrick J. Tiberi, State Rep. Tracy Maxwell Heard, County Commissioner Paula Brooks and City Councilwoman Eileen Y. Paley. Others who cut the ribbon includ Council Members Priscilla Tyson and Herceal Craig; CCAD Board President John Kobacker; architects George and Mitch Acock; Frank Kass of Continental Building Systems; Kathy Fox, executive director of the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission; Mark Corna of Corna-Kokosing; and students

"CCAD is one of the coolest colleges in America," Coleman said.

One of the reasons, he said, is because of the students.

Some of them talked about their new apartments, including Chelsea Castillo, a freshman in illustration. She likes the view from the new dorm, not to mention the kitchen that makes it possible to fix food other than via microwave.

She and Allen Lee, a sophomore in industrial design from Cleveland, disagree about privacy.

Castillo of Defiance thinks it affords greater privacy, but Lee said there's "too much window."

The view definitely has improved for Kristen Maynard of Rochester, N.Y., a sophomore in advertising graphics.

"I faced a Dumpster last year," she said.

Visitors were invited to tour both of the new buildings.

"It was over here that I used to wait while waiting for my car to be services," Jane Krastel of Upper Arlington said to friends touring the design studios at 390 E. Broad St.

The building formerly was a Byers car dealership and the ramps used to move cars from floor to floor were left intact, a feature that gives the spaces some "funky charm," Griffith said.

On a more serious note he announced that the school's capital campaign exceeded its $12 million goal by $600,000.

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