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UCLA Extension program opens new building

By Daily Bruin Staff

Nov. 12, 2001 9:00 p.m.

  EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff UCLA Extension
celebrated on Thursday, the opening of a new central facility. The
facility is located at 1010 Westwood Blvd.

By Josh Wolf
Daily Bruin Contributor

The UCLA Extension program opened a new facility in Westwood on
Thursday, creating a centralized location for its widespread
teaching efforts.

The 48,000-square-foot facility at 1010 Westwood Blvd., aims to
inspire creativity through its original design, said Dean of
Continuing Education Robert Lapiner. The bright colors and textured
plastics that adorn the walls symbolize many of the courses offered
at that site through the Extension program, he added.

“We practice what we teach,” Lapiner said.

The goal of the new facility, the dean said, is to provide
opportunity for interaction between academic departments.

“Bringing together our core programs in the arts and
applied arts and design will strengthen them, and, we hope, further
meaningful collaboration internally and with UCLA faculty and
students,” Lapiner said.

The grand opening reception brought together administrators,
architects, local government officials and teachers that had
collaborated on the $1.5 million project.

“All of us at Extension are delighted to have been able to
transform this venerable building into our newest classroom
facility, bringing together programs that have led a nomadic
existence until now,” Lapiner said at the ceremony.

After signing the lease in March 2000, UCLA Extension worked
with architects and designers from Rios & Associates to create
a modern learning environment.

“This is an extraordinary facility. It is all the things
you would hope a learning environment could be,” Chancellor
Albert Carnesale said in his speech at the event.

UCLA Extension, which also uses facilities at Universal City
Walk, on the UCLA campus and at other locations throughout Los
Angeles, offers 4,500 courses each year ““ 1,000 of which will
be taught in the new facility.

The main classes ““ which had already been meeting at the
facility since the beginning of fall ““ are architecture,
interior design and landscape architecture, and visual and graphic
design. The classrooms are available for all other subjects the
program offers, said Extension spokesperson Julie Jaskol.

UCLA Extension teaches 65,000 students a year. Many of them hold
advanced degrees, though classes are available to undergraduate
students, Lapiner said.

Some of the students’ works ““ colorful designs, clay
sculptures and landscape plans ““ were on display in 25
classrooms of the new facility on Thursday.

The projects displayed represented the product of high-level
professional training, said Rosanne Sachson, a member of the
“Friends of Extension” program.

The good thing about the new facility is that it offers a forum
for the various disciplines to interact, whereas they were separate
entities before, Sachson said.

“The idea is to open this up and take all the ideas that
are coming from all of these creative programs and bring them
together,” she said.

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