The School of Architecture will temporarily move to the newly constructed sculpture building next year while the Art and Architecture building undergoes renovations and a new art history building is built next door, Architecture Dean Richard Stern said, contradicting announcements last year that the planned refurbishing would be delayed due to funding shortages.

The new art history building will be constructed adjacent to the Architecture School building at the corner of Chapel and York streets, with the two buildings sharing a ventilation system and library, Yale President Richard Levin said. Construction of the art history building and renovations of the architecture building will begin simultaneously, Stern said. Because designs for construction on the art history building have become too expensive and a donor for the combined renovation project backed out, Yale officials have decided to provide full financial backing once again, Deputy Provost Lloyd Suttle said.

“This is fairly fast-track,” Suttle said. “It’s moving right ahead on all fronts.”

Levin said plans are in motion to offer a new and improved workspace for the Architecture School and Department of Art History, though the art history building may not be finished as soon as the architecture building.

“Our plan is to go ahead with construction of the sculpture building this summer, and have it completed by the following summer,” Levin said.

Several architecture students said they were unaware of the temporary move to a new building.

“We’ve been told nothing about renovation updates,” Brook Denison ARCH ’07 said. “But there was a recent meeting in which they addressed the dean’s committee about the new building.”

Jacob Reidel ARCH ’07 said he was not sure about the project’s status. But he said he is glad the administration has decided to renovate the old building, because he said its current dilapidated state, with poor ventilation and no air-conditioning, makes for an unpleasant workspace.

The current architecture building, designed by Paul Randulph, was featured on commemorative U.S. postage stamps issued last year.

The Yale University Art Gallery is also slated for completion at the end of this year and will feature a separate and secure entrance to its lecture hall space, located across the street from the Art and Architecture building. Previously, access to the lecture hall required a walk through the galleries themselves.