Despite falling five days behind schedule due to recent rainstorms, construction on the Visual and Performing Arts Center has moved sprightly into the beginning of a new quarter. Construction on the center is scheduled to be finished in October of this year, ready for regular use in the winter ’09 quarter.

“There have been no major mishaps and no accidents. So far, so good,” said Jeanine Hawk, De Anza College vice president of financial services.

Currently, the steel frame is in the process of going up, the lobby floor is being worked on, and the stage deck is in.

Construction on the new center began last spring, funded by leftover money from a bond measure known as Measure E.

Unlike the Flint Center, which is operated by the district rather than the campus, the smaller, more intimate performing arts center was designed to remain under the reign of De Anza College.

“The Flint Center is a big venue with several thousand seats, the management of which is contracted out to an external agency” said Hawk. “The Visual and Performing Arts Center on the other hand, will have 400 seats, and its primary purpose will be as an instructional center, a place for students to take classes and possibly perform as part of their classwork”

When completed, the center will be adorned with 16mm and 35mm film projection systems and screens to accommodate them in the performance hall.

As separate spaces there will be an art history classroom with a state-of-the-art four-slide projection system and next to these in the same building will be the Euphrat Art Museum, which can also be used as a smart classroom.

These facilities are ideal for the variety of classes that will be offered in them, such as film history classes, dance classes, music classes, art history classes and museum classes.

Currently, many of these class sections are in session in the Advanced Technology Center, but there are talks that once some of them settle in the new center, De Anza College might move forward with a renovation of the that building, which has not upgraded its technology in a while.

“ATC actually is a renovation project for Measure C. It’s not scheduled until 2010-2011, but we’ve actually applied for matching funds from the state. [The Foothill-De Anza Community College District] has about $6 million in the budget for the ATC for a major renovation and we’re trying to get matching funds for that.”

“[The ATC] is really functional now. But it could be even more functional and a really pleasant space if renovated,” Hawk said.

Ehssan Barkeshli is the News Editor for La Voz. Contact him at [email protected].