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A Digital Dedication

A new landmark on the Baltimore skyline.

Peter Halsey Sherwood -- Interior Design, 11/20/2003 12:00:00 AM

The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) has dedicated its new Brown Center for Digital Art & Design to donors Eddie and Sylvia Brown. Designed by Ziger/Snead and Charles Brickbauer of Baltimore, the 60,000-square-foot glass-and-steel structure is scheduled to open fully this winter.

Emerging up from the ground, the sculptural Center is quite striking in its translucent geometry as it pitches forward, leans back and then sticks straight up—in vivid contrast to the staid white marble of the College’s 1907 Renaissance Revival Main Building.

Architect Brickbauer is responsible for other Baltimore landmarks as well including Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI). With this project, he and Ziger/Snead have designed the first new academic building to be constructed on the campus in nearly a century.

According to MICA President Fred Lazarus, the design and construction of Brown Center is emblematic of MICA’S commitment to educational programs in digital art and design. He explains, “This structure, standing in counterpoint to the Main Building, is a metaphor for the College’s strength in balancing traditional practice in art and design with the demands and opportunities presented by new technologies.”

Brown Center will house studios, instructional space and offices for undergraduate majors in experimental animation, interactive media and video, as well as graduate programs: two new master of fine arts programs in graphic design and photography and a one-year master of arts in digital arts. Additionally, the building will house a 550-seat hall equipped to feature work in digital media, as well as film, video, music and small-scale performances of theatre, dance, and time-based art.