News

Major construction is complete on Cleveland Institute of Art’s new George Gund Building on Euclid Avenue. The 80,000-square-foot building now needs only finishing touches – and a few more occupants.

A dramatic video featuring time-lapse images of the building’s construction – filmed between the autumn of 2013 and January 2015 – is viewable at vimeo.com/116263265.

Non-academic offices such as marketing have already begun moving into the new building, as the college vacates its current George Gund Building on East Boulevard across the street from the Cleveland Museum of Art. 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 are purchasing the East Boulevard building.

“This is a very exciting time in the 132-year history of the college,” said CIA President Grafton Nunes. “Our new building 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.”

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.

The new building houses: the Peter B. Lewis Theater, future home of the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque; the Reinberger Gallery; The Ann and Norman Roulet Student and Alumni Gallery; the Stone Flower Café; American Greetings Welcome Center; and several administrative offices. All of the following academic departments will be housed in the new building by the start of the fall 2015 semester: Industrial Design, Interior Architecture, Graphic Design, Illustration, Biomedical Art, Game Design, Animation, and Photography + Video. The new building is 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 2014 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.”