New South to house creative writing, arts studios

Creative writing faculty will head to the area adjacent to the proposed site of the arts and transit neighborhood on the western edge of the campus in July, when they are scheduled to move into New South.  

The move was motivated, in part, by the addition of new faculty members and class sections in recent years. Creative writing program faculty, whose offices are concentrated in 185 Nassau St. and scattered in other campus locations, will find a new home on the sixth floor of New South. That floor also will house three classrooms and a library.  

The first floor of New South will be renovated to accommodate two dance studio spaces and one theater studio for the theater and dance programs. The first-floor lobby will be rebuilt to provide a larger and more inviting entrance to the building.  

The vacated space in 185 Nassau will be used for visual arts faculty members, some of whom are located in other buildings.

“The creative writing program is the most portable element in the Lewis Center,” said Professor Paul Muldoon, the center’s chairman. “A writer doesn’t need a lab or a well-lit studio. ... So it’s best that we move out of 185 to give some of our colleagues more room to expand.”  

University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt ’96 said that planning continues for the arts and transit neighborhood to the south of McCarter Theatre Center, which will require funding as well as local zoning approvals. The proposal includes teaching and performance spaces, administrative offices, and relocation of the Dinky station about 460 feet to the south.  

Built in 1965 as one of the University’s first high-rise buildings, seven-story New South houses administrative offices. The space for the creative writing program and studios for theater and dance became available when Princeton’s finance and treasury operations moved from New South to 701 Carnegie Center last fall. The University is working with James Bradberry Architects of Bryn Mawr, Pa., on the project.