By Staff Report Thursday, February 26th, 2015

Real estate developer and art collector William Rolland is pledging up to $4 million to California Lutheran University for a new art department building.

According to the university, CLU will cover the remaining $4 million needed to fund the development of a 25,000- to 30,000-square-foot art center on the Thousand Oaks campus to be named for Rolland. It will house art studios, offices, computer labs and a student gallery, and possibly classroom space.

The university’s board of regents approved an allocation of $300,000 for the initial planning and design. Once that work is completed, the board will vote to approve the building project.

The new William Rolland Art Center would consolidate a patchwork of art department offices and classrooms currently spread across three buildings, two of which pre-date the university’s 1959 founding.

Rolland, who also owns Rolland Real Estate, previously donated $5.5 million to university for the construction of the William Rolland Stadium and Gallery of Fine Art, completed in 2011.

The new complex will be located next to the stadium and gallery and built on the current site of the temporary Riparian Building, which houses university marketing, conferences and events and printing services.

CLU is expanding its reach in the art world. In 2012, university faculty launched The Representational Art Conference, which attracted 400 artists, critics, academics, collectors and curators from throughout the world last year.