UCI unveils Arts Plaza

Vietnam Veterans Memorial artist Maya Lin and landscape architect Pamela Burton designed the 30,000-square-foot, $3.6-million plaza commissioned in 2000. UC Irvine unveiled its new Arts Plaza on Tuesday afternoon in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, capping a five-year project to revitalize one of the oldest sections of campus.

The $3.6-million, 30,000-square-foot project, commissioned in 2000, was designed by internationally famous artist Maya Lin, and landscape architect Pamela Burton. The plaza features a grass amphitheater, outdoor video screens, a water table and “whispering benches” with speakers -- which can broadcast recorded music or ambient noise from other parts of the courtyard.

Lin, Burton, Chancellor Michael Drake and arts dean Nohema Fernández were among those present at the ceremony Tuesday, when the plaza was officially unveiled. More than 100 individuals, including a number of campus deans, attended the opening and strolled around the plaza grounds afterward.

“A project like this isn’t like going into your studio and doing it alone,” Lin told the crowd. “It requires a huge, enthusiastic group of people.”

In the late 1990s, UCI began a $17-million capital campaign to renovate the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, which had changed little since the university opened three decades earlier. Among the other projects completed under the campaign are the construction of the Beall Center for Art and Technology, the renovation of the Winifred Smith Hall and the opening of the Claire Trevor Theatre.

The Arts Plaza -- which extends through the outdoor area by Smith Hall, the Beall Center and other buildings -- is the final step in the capital project. Michael Gottfredson, UCI’s executive vice chancellor and provost, said the area had been a sore spot for the campus in recent years.

“There was a direction lacking,” he said. “There was a center lacking. There was a concrete courtyard in the midst of all these wonderful projects.”

During the ceremony, the School of the Arts demonstrated its craft -- and the plaza’s capabilities -- with student films playing on the video monitors and live performances. A pair of student dancers, accompanied by musicians, performed an extended piece that ended with removing the covers from the benches and water table.

The table, designed by Lin, is made of black stone and features a squiggly line from which water flows continuously. Surrounding it are sycamores and other fragrant trees designed to entice visitors with their scents.

Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., said she wanted students and faculty to discover their own uses for the plaza.

“My hope is that they will take over it and use it for what they need to use it for, whether it’s leading a class outside or showing their friends an experimental video,” Lin said.

Newport Beach residents Marilyn and Thomas Nielsen, both longtime UCI supporters, led the fundraising for the project. Marilyn Nielsen serves on the Dean’s Leadership Council for the arts school, and her husband -- a director emeritus of the Irvine Co. and a member of the Orange County Performing Arts Center board of directors -- has been on the UCI Foundation board for 23 years.

Lin, 46, won national recognition in 1980 when her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial beat out more than 1,400 entries. The memorial, dedicated in 1982, has endured as a symbol of the Vietnam War’s cost.

The artist, who was still an undergraduate at Yale University when her design was chosen, has gone on to a distinguished career. In 1989, she created the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Ala., which honored 40 individuals who gave their lives during the struggle to end segregation. In 1993, she dedicated the Women’s Table at Yale, paying tribute to the increasing number of women students at the university since its inception.

In his remarks at the Tuesday ceremony, Drake compared Lin to civil rights leader Rosa Parks, who had died the previous day.

“Maya, who was the daughter of immigrants, and Rosa, who was the granddaughter of slaves, were both women who came to this country with an idea of what the United States could be,” he said.

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or by e-mail at [email protected].

20051026ioy44fknDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)People gather around Maya Lin’s water table, the centerpiece of UC Irvine’s new Arts Plaza. It was dedicated at a ceremony Tuesday. 20051026ioy43vknDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Maya Lin, center, is applauded by the crowd gathered to see her work at UCI.