This is an image of the lower Quad as well as the new theater and performing arts building across South Main Street as seen from Wilson Hall.
The new facility will be used to house the Theater Department in addition to the entertainment of the JMU community. It will provide greater access to performances and concerts for the student body in a new and larger building. Occupying land that was once owned by a long-time local funeral home, the new building says a lot about the future of JMU within in the context of the greater Harrisonburg/Rockingham community. As JMU embarks upon its "master plan" of development, the surrounding area has sacrificed much of its heritage, and the theater building exemplifies this expansion best. JMU bought out an established business in order to construct this building, irking the local population, which has already had to contend with a boom in construction and growth of the student body over the past decade. Many in Harrisonburg see JMU as wiping away the town's history and taking over their land; this construction of this building typifies the encroaching nature of JMU of late.
The JMU student body, faculty, and administration no doubt see this expansion in a different light, as this building serves multiple functions: symbolic, aesthetic, and practical. Again, it is symbolic of the university's growth and the desire to enhance the prestige and appeal of it. For aesthetic purposes, it is a beautiful building that was designed to blend in with the already-existing and older Quad with is use of blue stone, and also as a way to sort of close off the other end of the Quad. In practical terms, it is designed to accommodate the theater/performing arts program, as well as provide new and varied venues for entertainment not just to the students, but to the surrounding area, too.
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