Holcombe T. Green Jr. Hall is not on the online map of Yale campus. It is not listed among the buildings, either.
“The general public doesn’t know what it is,” said Daniel Berson ’03, who recently acted in the building’s New Theater.
But students and the dean of the School of Art agree that the newly-renovated building at 1156 Chapel St. has performed well in its first year.
The building was dedicated on Oct. 27, 2000 and was named after major funder Holcombe T. Green Jr. ’61, who is a member of the Yale Corporation. It houses the School of Art and the Yale Repertory Theater New Theater.
“We feel very lucky,” School of Art Dean Richard Benson said. “We are thrilled that we live in a time that Yale and the rest of the world would build this thing for art.”
Green Hall and its annex host three of the School of Art’s four main departments: Painting-Printmaking, Photography and Graphic Design. The Sculpture Department is located in Hammond Hall at 14 Mansfield St.
Green Hall contains classrooms, studios, darkrooms, offices and digital labs. One part of the building, the Paul Rand Center for Graphic Design, was made possible by a gift from Marion Rand in memory of her husband, Graphic Design professor Paul Rand.
The School of Art also has an exhibition gallery in the building.
“The gallery facilities are a useful resource,” art student Tyler Coburn ’05 said. “My teachers tell me to look at the art in the gallery for ideas for greater understanding of drawing styles.”
The gallery currently features “Alumni Choice — An Exhibition of Works on Paper.” The exhibition opened Oct. 1 and will run until Oct. 28.
The building’s New Theater, which seats 200 people, has also received good reviews.
“It’s one of the best theater spaces open to undergraduates,” Berson said. “It’s a really good space–a manageable size, brand new with really nice dressing room facilities.”
The Dramat has used the theater for its experimental productions of “The Crucible” and “The Taming of the Shrew,” and the Yale Repertory Theatre will use the space for its performance of Tennessee Williams’ “Kingdom of Earth.”
Benson said Green Hall is open to undergraduates, who can obtain keys to both the building and its annex.
“The resources are extremely accessible,” Benson said.
The building now houses almost all of the School of Art, but Benson said the school did not change to fit the new building and its annex.
“The structure of the school did not change — the buildings were not an occasion to redesign the school,” Benson said. “The only thing we’ve done that’s a major change is we’ve strengthened the digital side of the school [for Graphic Design].”
Perhaps not every member of the Yale community knows much about the new building, but Benson said he is very pleased with the first year in Green Hall.
“It’s all great — it’s terrific,” Benson said.