Woodbury University is getting a new, $1.2 million building to house its brand new digital media program, courtesy of grants and a contractor with Woodbury ties. Construction workers last month poured the first concrete for the 5,200-square-foot building scheduled to open in August. The building will house a 2,500-square-foot soundstage and 750-square-foot screening room, creating a home for a program currently without its own building. The project is being funded through a combination of private and federal grants as well as some capital from the university, said Don St. Clair, the university’s vice president of marketing. At the moment, “we are conducting the program without a proper soundstage and technical facilities,” he said. St. Clair said the new facility, which will also house some lectures, will help Woodbury’s nascent digital film program grow in a tough market that’s home to the film industry and top-notch film schools. “If you want to have a film program … in Los Angeles you simply have to have top quality facilities,” he said. To help build those facilities, Woodbury called upon S3 Builders Inc., a firm predominately composed of Woodbury graduates. “We have a unique relationship here,” said Principal Marc Rapisardi, who graduated from Woodbury’s architecture program in 2005 and is currently an MBA student. To pay for the new building, Woodbury has turned to a variety of funding sources. One grant paving the way is a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Hispanic-Serving Institutions program that helped launch Woodbury’s new digital film making, game design and media technology degrees. The federal grant contributed about $500,000 to the new building, while a grant from the Ahmanson Foundation makes up another $500,000 and the university contributed the rest, St. Clair said. Woodbury kicked off its filmmaking degree in fall 2011, while the game design and the media technology degree programs are set to launch in fall 2012, St Clair said. Woodbury will have about 40 students enrolled in its filmmaking degree in the spring semester. In five years, St. Clair projects the university will have about 300 students enrolled in the three digital media programs. Rapisardi said the construction project won’t only help Woodbury, but also its alumni at S3. “Education is probably one of the biggest investments you spend your money on … and the more that university grows and the better it gets the more your investment grows, as well.” — Andrew Khouri
New Building At Woodbury To House University’s Digital Media Program
