When President Karen L. Gould dug a shovel into the ground outside Gershwin Hall on May 13, she officially began Brooklyn College’s latest construction project: a new performing arts center. The Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts, scheduled for completion in 2014, will replace the 54-year-old Gershwin Hall and provide both theater and music students with a modern and spacious resource that will greatly enhance their education. Leonard Tow, ’50, and his wife, Claire, ’52, donated $10 million toward construction of the new complex, which will include a 225-seat, flexible performance space with variable acoustics for music and theater; instrumental and theater rehearsal rooms that double as performance venues; a recording studio; a sound simulation lab; a center for computer music; a choral rehearsal room; more than 30 music studios and practice rooms; and a scene shop.
