The Fashion Institute of Technology received $74 million in funding from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration on Thursday, to be used toward a new state-of-the-art academic building. When completed, the structure will be the school’s first new academic building in over 40 years.
Funds were allocated in a multiyear financial plan, stemming from de Blasio’s new executive budget, also revealed Thursday. The city’s contributions match an equal financial commitment from the State of New York made in 2009 as part of SUNY’s fiscal plan for the upkeep of its community colleges.
The new building, yet to be named, will add nearly 100,000 square feet to the college’s campus, which has long resided on West 27th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. The school says the structure will help alleviate its 400,000-square-foot spacial shortage. At present, the school’s existing structures accommodate a student population of nearly 10,000. FIT’s enrollment has doubled in the past 30 years.
“We thank Mayor de Blasio for his commitment to public higher education and the creative industries of New York,” said FIT president Joyce Brown.
The new building will serve academic and student life functions. Its design was revealed in 2006, when Shop Architects won a design competition for the project. The firm is also responsible for the look of the Barclay’s Center and contributed to Google’s headquarters.
FIT said fundraising is now complete and it will take another year for the building’s design logistics to be sorted out, followed by another three years of construction. The building has been designed to include a glass facade – and will sit among FIT’s current campus buildings, this one spilling out onto West 28th Street.