SCI-Arc, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, will be extending its reach into the community with the creation of three public venues made possible by a $400,000 grant awarded by ArtPlace. The grant, funded by private foundations and public agencies including the National Endowment for the Arts, seeks to encourage creative and locally focused placemaking; $15.4 million in grant funds is allocated to 47 projects located across the country. SCI-Arc director Eric Owen Moss wrote in a statement, “If architecture, as SCI-Arc has always proclaimed, speaks by building, the ArtPlace contribution affords us two special construction moments to ratify what we preach.”

The school plans to put the grant toward the design, planning, and construction of an amphitheater, an outdoor pavilion, and a theater inside the nearby One Santa Fe arts center. These projects will carry forward the momentum created by the school’s purchase of its historic 1907 home last year, engaging the community and planning for the area’s future. With the new construction SCI-Arc hopes to contribute to developing the surrounding Arts District with public programming and gathering space.

The first venue to be built is the amphitheater (dubbed the “Hispanic Steps”) located in the center of the SCI-Arc building. It will have rise seating for lectures, performances, screenings, and public meetings and is expected to be completed this fall. The outdoor venue, located at the school’s entrance, is a 750-seat pavilion and will be the Arts District’s largest public programming space. Groundbreaking on the pavilion is scheduled for spring 2013 and it will serve as the 2013 Graduation Pavilion. Working with the community, SCI-Arc will also help to plan a 99-seat theater located in the developer-funded One Santa Fe arts center, a mixed-use, transit oriented development adjacent the school.