Visual Arts Building

In 2010, John Brown University (JBU) selected Hastings+Chivetta to program and design new space for the Department of Engineering and Construction Management. A year later, Hastings+Chivetta was retained to renovate the space vacated by the engineering department into a cutting-edge visual arts facility.

Previously, the Department of Visual Arts occupied only the southwest building of the Cathedral Group, a historic area on JBU’s main campus. With the renovation of the Cathedral Group’s northeast building, the 200-plus visual arts majors are utilizing both facilities.

The renovated facility includes new drawing and painting studios, a printmaking studio, a larger multipurpose/enhanced-technology classroom, video editing suites, sound recording studios, drawing studios, and a permanent student works gallery. The Windgate Visual Arts East building serves digital media arts, cinema, graphic and web design, art and illustration and photography majors.

In addition to full architectural services, Hastings+Chivetta also provided engineering design services.  All systems were designed for energy efficiency, including variable volume airflow and variable flow chilled and heating water systems. Direct Digital Controls were installed and interfaced into the campus wide system to allow for remote management of unoccupied period energy conservation strategies