Shop Talk: Brandeis U. Drops Arts-Center Project, UC-Irvine Adds Beds, and More

Cancelled: The president of Brandeis University, Jehuda Reinharz, told faculty members that the university was dropping plans for an arts center because costs “have gone through the roof.” The arts center, for which the university had received a $10-million gift, was to have been designed by Moshe Safdie and Associates.

Big plans: Officials at Contra Costa College are working out details of an $83-million facilities master plan that would replace the college’s humanities and student-activities buildings and construct a new classroom building. Money for several other projects, however, has been delayed by California’s state-budget impasse.

1,763 beds for Irvine: American Campus Communities is building a $221-million housing complex at the University of California at Irvine that will help the university move toward its goal of housing half of its students on its campus. The project — the company’s third at the university — is designed to achieve a gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. Wendell C. Brase, the university’s administrative- and business-services vice chancellor, said the university believes that the three projects together represent “the largest privatized student-housing project in the United States, whether measured by residents, dollars, or square feet.”

Drought in South Carolina: Six trees have been lost to drought and another to construction at Clemson University. “The drought is unnerving,” said Adrienne Gerus, Clemson’s director of landscape services. “I’ve never seen it like this.” Wood from the pecan tree pulled down to make room for a new building will be used for furniture, trim, and mulch.