An addition to Irvine’s collection: Steven Ehrlich Architects, a Culver City firm that has designed a number of buildings for Southern California businesses and institutions, has won a competition to design a $33-million arts center at the University of California at Irvine. The building, which is shooting for a silver rating in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, will feature a theater, museum-quality exhibition space, media labs, artist studios, and faculty offices. Areas that require strict environmental controls, like the museum space, will be enclosed. Much of the rest of the building will be open. “Balconies, terraces, open walkways, and a colonnade encourage both visual and physical interaction between the building, its occupants, and the surrounding community,” Charles Oakley, a principal at the firm, said in a news release. UC-Irvine is the home of a number of buildings by famous architects. An early building by Frank Gehry was recently torn down.

Big expansion at VCU: At the beginning of the spring semester, Virginia Commonwealth University opened the first buildings on its Monroe Park campus, which included an expansion of the university’s business and engineering schools. The expansion covers 11 acres and will cost more than $220-million, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Three buildings and a parking facility are part of the first phase of the project, which adds up to $157-million. Snead Hall, a 145,000-square-foot business-school building, is connected to East Hall, a 115,000-square-foot engineering-school expansion. The first phase also included a renovation and expansion of a 1897 warehouse, which was once the stables for a hotel, for VCU’s advertising program.

In the battle zone: Appalachian State University and residents of Boone, N.C., are still wrangling over the location of a proposed college-of-education building. According to the Watauga Democrat, the Boone Town Council held a zoning meeting last week where council members “did all but bite their tongues” to keep mention of the university’s building off the official record. “Since the cases only concerned rezoning and university-growth-planning recommendations, the college of education, though quite likely the subject of the rezoning, could not specifically be discussed by council and commission members,” the reporter, Frank Ruggiero, explained. The battle over the building site has been described as a power struggle. Eris Dedmond, who owns the single-family house next to the property, said the building plan was a violation of her rights.