Friday, October 24, 2008 10:31 PM CDT
EIU's Doudna rededicated
By NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — From the podium on the stage of the theater in the building he designed, renowned architect Antoine Predock welcomed relatives of the man after whom the building was named: former Eastern Illinois University President Quincy Doudna.
“I’m so pleased to meet you,” said Predock. Doudna “is a name I’m saying all the time, because I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished here.”
On Friday, 10 years of planning, waiting and building culminated in the formal rededication of the new Doudna Fine Arts Center — a massive expansion and renovation of the old arts building that houses the lion’s share of the university’s fine and performing arts programs.
But Predock, known worldwide for his transcendent architectural designs, took little credit himself for the final product at the heart of the Charleston campus. Rather, he said Doudna manifests the “commitment” to the arts by the entire EIU community.
“The spiritual inspiration for the project came from you all collectively,” Predock said. “That doesn’t happen very often.”
Great architecture is set apart by an “intangible content,” Predock said. “You can’t just design it. It comes from the client; it comes from place (and) from the arts through the ages.”
He concluded that Doudna is “a musical instrument; it’s an observatory — take it on and use it in ways that are unexpected.”
Planning for the renovation and expansion of Doudna began 10 years ago.
Predock, winner of the 2006 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement and the 2007 Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Design, was brought on board in 2000.
The original structure was gutted in the summer of 2002, but sat empty for almost three years after repeated funding delays and cuts by the state. The governor’s Capital Development Board finally began seeking bids for the $66 million project in early 2004, and construction began in the spring of 2005.
The fine arts center grew by more than 200,000 square feet.
For the last six years, music students called the McAfee Gymnasium their home, while art students used an old grocery store in West Park Plaza and the theatre department worked out of another former grocery store, now known as Charleston’s Village Theatre.
Students returned this fall to the completed Doudna, which boasts The Theatre, a state-of-the-art, 300-seat performance venue; the Black Box studio theatre; the 600-seat Dvorak Concert Hall; the 180-seat Recital Hall; the 150-seat Lecture Hall; and several corridor art galleries.
During Friday’s ceremony, President Bill Perry recalled meeting an EIU graduate who attended the university during Doudna’s tenure as president. The student had planned to transfer to the University of Illinois, but opted to remain at EIU after Doudna greeted her by name one day while walking across campus. Doudna told her he had attended a play in which she performed, and praised her efforts.
“He changed her life,” Perry said. “And that’s what we’re going to do day in, day out (because of the Doudna Fine Arts Center). We’re going to change the lives of students.
“This is a place where the arts will enlighten, inspire and educate hundreds of thousands (of people) for years to come ... It not only transforms the university, it transforms our lives.”
Officially accepting the center on behalf of EIU, Perry said, “I promise to you, we will put it to its best and highest purpose.”
The rededication Friday featured a number of other dignitaries, including former presidents, administrators and elected officials.
Ruth Duckworth, the famous Modernist sculptor who created “Attendant Spirit,” the large bronze sculpture installed at the north entrance of Doudna, also attended Friday.
Former President Lou Hencken, who was at the helm of EIU for most of the gestation of the Doudna project, recalled the words of Winston Churchill in reference to funding battles with the state over the fine arts center: “Never give up.”
Hencken said, “We all worked together, (and) this building right now is going to go to our goal of making Eastern Illinois University a first choice institution.”
Former President David Jorns spearheaded the master architectural plan that laid the groundwork for the Doudna project, and said the building is “a monument to determination.”
Jorns, who holds a doctorate in theatre, said, “The arts are neither efficient nor practical, (but) we really need the arts. We rely on them to explain the human condition.”
James Johnson, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, noted that he is retiring in June and Doudna is “one of the most rewarding professional activities I’ve ever been involved in.”
He said people from all different backgrounds can be exposed to all different forms of art, and called Doudna “a place where creativity is seen and experienced and celebrated.”
Jeffrey Lynch, associate dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, said it is appropriate that Doudna sits in the middle of the university because “Eastern’s artistic soul now takes its place in the center of campus.”
He said the fine arts center is “a living testament and material articulation of the values that bind us together.”
Roger Kratochvil, chair of the EIU Board of Trustees, recalled the six years of anticipation and exile for art, music and theatre students after Doudna was gutted of asbestos. “I think we can all agree the finished project is well worth the wait,” he said.
State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, a Charleston native who “grew up across the street” from Doudna, simply said, “Isn’t this just awesome?”
He praised the cooperation that finally brought Doudna back to life. “This was a team effort from the bottom up,” Rose said.
State Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, said working on Doudna in the legislature has given him a “new appreciation for the arts.”
He said Doudna will have a “ripple effect (on) generations to come.”
EIU Student Body President Levi Bulgar said Doudna is “a symbol of what Eastern Illinois University can be,” and he is proud to be “witnessing the rebirth of fine arts on the Eastern Illinois University Campus.”
Contact Nathaniel West at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.
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ewarren wrote on Oct 25, 2008 9:24 AM: