UCLA Plans to Build $31 Million Studio Complex for Graduate Students

LOS ANGELES, CA - The UCLA School of the Arts & Architecture has embarked on a project to build a $31 million expansion of a studio complex for graduate art students in Culver City, it was reported today.

The university is in the late planning stages, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing people familiar with the project. The 75,000-square-foot building would replace the tumble-down facility now in use.

The plan for the complex was conceived in 2011 but languished for lack of funds. Major funding for the project will come from Margo Leavin, the art dealer who ran an art gallery in West Hollywood for 42 years until her retirement in 2012, The Times reported.

The size of Leavin's proposed donation has not been disclosed, but sources familiar with the project peg her gift at $20 million, according to The Times.

U.S. News & World Report has ranked UCLA's master of fine arts program No. 2 in the nation, just behind Yale, which has the second-largest endowment in the United States. UCLA's art school tied Virginia Commonwealth University, notable for its design program.

City News Service