The Tyler School of Art, Temple University's premier art institution, will move to the university's campus in North Philadelphia from its present location in Elkins Park.
A new, four-story building will be built on the site bounded by 12th, Marvine, Norris and Diamond streets. The university hopes to open it in September 2006.
Mayor Street hailed the decision by Temple as another example of a reversal of the decades-long trend of institutions and businesses leaving the city.
He said the decision "signals a real shift in the paradigm. We now have Temple moving facilities into the city, we're moving businesses from the suburbs to the city, and we're attracting capital to the neighborhoods that hasn't been available in this proportion for years."
Harriet Goodheart, acting director of communications for Temple, said the move "will make for a wonderful creative synergy for our students and will bring creative vitality to the neighborhood."
She said the university is excited about the new location because it will be close to the Boyer College of Music and the School of Communications and Theater.
The new building will have 255,000 square feet and cost $75 million. It will have classrooms, offices and exhibition space for 120 faculty and staff, and 880 students. Funding will come from the state, $58 million; Temple, $7 million; and private sources, $10 million.
City Councilman Darrell Clarke, who represents much of North Philadelphia, including the Temple campus, said he was ecstatic about the decision.
"Day by day, we continue to roll out new initiatives in North Philadelphia," he said.
Moving the art school to the Temple campus is not a new idea. A task force was formed in 1998 to consider it, but nothing came of it.
The art school was founded in 1934. It became the Tyler School of Art when it moved to the 12-acre tract in Cheltenham Township donated by Stella Elkins Tyler in 1963. *
