Princeton Welcomes in New Year with Start of $300 Million Project

PRINCETON, N.J. — Princeton officials made the decision last week to approve funding for a new arts and transit building. The $300 million project is finally scheduled to begin in February 2013, after nearly six years of planning and countless debates.

The project will include three new arts buildings, designed by architect Steven Holl and will house the Lewis Center for the Arts and some functions of the Department of Music. The plans also include designs by architect Rick Joy, for a new Dinky train station and Wawa convenience store, as well as renovation of the existing rail station buildings to include a restaurant and café. Infrastructure improvements to the site and adjacent roadways, a multimodal transit center and extensive landscaping are also part of the project, according to a university statement.

The project will break ground early this year, but is not expected to be complete until 2017. The project has been in the talks since 2006 when the university announced its 10-year comprehensive campus plan, which included plans for the University’s Arts and Transit Neighborhood project. The Princeton Borough and Princeton Township granted zoning approval for the project but a sigh of relief for university officials came last week when the planning board voted 9-1 in favor of the final site plan for the project.

“I want to express my appreciation to the Planning Board members and staff for all of the time they devoted to this project and for giving us the green light to proceed with a project that I am convinced will have a transformative impact on the arts at the university and in the community,” said Shirley Tilghman, university president in a statement. “I believe the project will create an attractive new gateway into the community and will meet a broad range of goals related to transit issues and sustainability that are important to both the community and the university.”

The project will bring a tremendous amount of building space to the university, as the arts building will total 139,000 square feet and includes the Wallace Dance Building and Theater, a music building, and a building with multiple uses such as administrative space, a box office and a gallery. In addition, the Arts and Transit neighborhood will provide community spaces such as a broad public walkway, an Arts Plaza, a Transit Plaza and a large forum space that opens on to the Transit Plaza as well as each of the buildings on the Arts Plaza.

Vice president and secretary of the university, Robert Durkee, explained that over the last six years the university has been working with the members of the planning board and other officials in order to finalize the construction plans and obtain the proper documentation to proceed. Durkee also explained in a statement the university’s willingness and readiness to work with the community to make the construction as efficient as possible.

“We will now do our best to keep the community fully informed about the construction schedule and to minimize disruption as much as possible as we now proceed with the development of the site,” Durkee said.