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As countless passers-by have noted this fall, Cleveland Institute of Art’s new George Gund Building is really taking shape. The 80,000-square-foot building now under construction on Euclid Avenue is slated for completion in December and it’s beginning to look a lot like the building in the architectural renderings presented to the CIA community.

“It’s very exciting to see our new building looking more and more like a finished building and less and less like a construction site,” said CIA President Grafton Nunes. “Years of planning and fundraising and months of construction are paying off.”

Panzica Construction Company crews worked all through the winter of 2013-2014 so that by June 2014, the final steel beam was ceremoniously placed on the new building, which is adjoined to CIA’s historic Joseph McCullough Center for the Visual Arts on Euclid Avenue.

Substantial progress has continued since. After the construction is completed in December 2014, non-academic departments will begin moving from CIA’s East Boulevard George Gund Building to the new, Euclid Avenue George Gund Building during the spring 2015 semester. The library and remaining academic departments on East Boulevard will move to the new complex during summer 2015. The Cleveland Museum of Art and Case Western Reserve University have purchased the East Boulevard building.

By the start of the 2015-2016 academic year, the entire college will be unified on the Euclid Avenue site and all CIA students will – for the first time in more than a quarter of a century – learn, create, and inspire one another on a single campus.

“This will be an exceptional facility in which generations of students, artists and art lovers will learn about, create, exhibit and experience art and design, and enjoy classic and independent cinematic works through our Cinematheque program,” said Nunes.

The new, 80,000-square-foot building will house: the Peter B. Lewis Theater, future home of the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque; CIA’s main exhibition gallery; The Ann and Norman Roulet Student and Alumni Gallery; the Stone Flower Café; American Greetings Welcome Center; several administrative offices; and the following academic departments: Industrial Design, Interior Architecture, Graphic Design, Illustration, Biomedical Art, Game Design, Animation, and Photography + Video. The new building will be adjoined to the existing McCullough building by the soaring, sunlit Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Atrium.

CIA is naming the new building for George Gund II in honor of $10 million in support provided by his family and the foundation that bears his name. Gund (1888-1966), former chairman of the Cleveland Trust Company, chaired CIA’s board from 1942-1966.



While construction progressed on the new Gund building at the east end of Uptown this past year, developer MRN Ltd. completed and opened CIA’s new Uptown Residence Hall near the western end of Uptown, across Euclid Avenue from MOCA Cleveland. Students moved in at the end of the summer.



“Having state-of-the-art facilities for living and learning in this vibrant Uptown neighborhood is helping us draw top students from across the country and around the world,” Nunes said.

Robust fundraising continued in 2013-14 to make this unified campus possible. Through the generosity of alumni and friends, CIA completed the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation’s $1 million matching challenge, which attracted a total of $2 million in new commitments over multiple years, as well as a special $500,000 challenge to staff and trustees by Sally and John Schulze, which attracted $500,000 in new commitments. This year, CIA also received notification of a State of Ohio Capital grant in the amount of $1 million.

“We thank all contributors to the Framing Our Future campaign,” said Nunes. “Thanks to their generosity, we are building a rich learning environment and a bright future for our students and our college.”

Above: CIA's new George Gund Building is taking shape adjoined to the Joseph McCullough Center for the Visual Arts on Euclid Avenue.