The Edmond J. Safra Center for the Arts will not be built due to increasing costs, University President Jehuda Reinharz announced at a faculty meeting Thursday, Sept. 4. Reinharz said he could not disclose further details about the project, which is in the midst of being terminated."Costs have gone through the roof," Reinharz said at the meeting.

"The parties, [including the University and the donor], are winding down [negotiations]," which is why Reinharz cannot release more information at this time, Senior Vice President for Communications Lorna Miles said.

The Justice reported in August 2004 that the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation donated a $10 million gift for the Edmond J. Safra Center for the Arts.

Administrators did not give an answer to questions about the final price of the Center for the Arts or specifics about the relationship between the University and the Safra Foundation. Vice President for Capital Projects Dan Feldman told the Justice in an e-mail last week that he could not add any information to what Reinharz told faculty members.

The Safra Foundation brought in Moshe Safdie and Associates to design the project. The Edmond J. Safra Fine Arts Building, which was going to replace the Pollack Fine Arts Teaching Center, was phase one of the project.

Ori Rittenberg, a project architect for Safdie and Associates, said the architectural firm had no part in the price negotiations for the Center for the Arts and received notice from the University that the project had come to a close.

Fine Arts department chair Prof. Charles McClendon wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that the University worked with two other architects, Polshek Partnership, who did the initial programming, and Bruner Cott, who did preliminary designs, before Safdie.

Miles said Reinharz has to renew his fundraising efforts in order to build a new fine arts center but will not seek a donation from the Safra Foundation.

The University "wouldn't be at this place" if negotiations with the Safra Foundation had been more successful, Miles said.

The Fine Arts department "definitely needs more space, so I will do my very best to try to find someone [to complete the project]," Reinharz said in an interview with the Justice.

McClendon said Reinharz told Fine Arts department staff before the faculty meeting that the University had decided to cancel the relationship with the current donor.

"Trying to establish a budget has been challenging," McClendon said. He said he thought the termination had to do with the increasing price of materials and challenges with the donor about assisting with the budget.

McClendon said Reinharz had agreed to look for additional fundraising money in addition to the Safra donation to help finance the project while it was still in progress.

Studio Art Director Prof. Susan Lichtman (FA) said Safdie's design itself was a "work of art" and "it is very sad that [the project] is not going to happen." Safdie's design could have been "much simpler" but "maybe not as interesting," she said.

Lichtman said advantages of the new building included studios for senior art students and students in the postbaccalaureate program who currently operate out of a studio on Prospect Street.

McClendon said there are more undergraduates pursuing majors in the Fine Arts department than ever.

"It's not just an issue of space but also of health and safety and the maintenance of a creative environment," Prof. Graham Campbell (FA) wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

In May 2007 the Office of Capital Projects wrote in a memo to the Brandeis community that construction of the building was to start in early 2008, but last March Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Peter French told the Justice that "The cost estimate has gone significantly higher than our budget. ... We've had some discussion with the donor at the Safra Foundation. There is going to be some delay in the project."

The Safra project was not mentioned in a memo from French in May 2008, but Feldman wrote in an e-mail to the Justice last August, "It is a normal part of the process that there are several cost estimates within the overall course of design. The current design has not changed in any fundamental way, but efforts to reduce cost without impacting building function or quality have been (and are) ongoing."

"The project is scheduled for a mid-May 2010 opening, and as of today it remains on schedule," he wrote in his August e-mail.

Lichtman said the Fine Arts department has a meeting with Feldman next week to create a "wish list" for ways the University can help meet program needs for now.

McClendon said many art history classes were moved to other locations on campus this fall in anticipation of the demolition of Pollack. He said Pollack needs to be refurbished, including repairs to broken seats, before students and faculty can move back into the building. Repairs will hopefully start in spring semester, he said.