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By University Communications
August 13, 2007

Nearly 47 years after its founding, The University of Arizona Poetry Center will move into its permanent home this week.

Construction on the Helen S. Schaefer Building is nearly complete and the relocation of the UA Poetry Center's vast collection begins on Wednesday.

"This will be the new only landmark building on a University campus dedicated to celebrating and advancing poetry," said Gail Browne, executive director of the UA Poetry Center. "Forty-seven years after its founding, the Poetry Center will finally have a building that's worthy of its international reputation."

Highlights of the 17,000 square-foot building include a spacious item library, a climate-controlled rare-book room, guest accommodations for visiting writers, meeting rooms for the community and modern administrative offices.

"For the first time in decades we will have space for all the works in our collection," Browne said.

The UA Poetry Center features one of the largest collections of contemporary poetry in the country, with more than 60,000 items, including books, journals, photographs and recordings.

The openness of the facility, which comprises two buildings connected by a covered walkway, was designed as a progression toward silence and solitude, according to Jennifer DaRos, an architect for Line and Space, the firm that designed the building.

"It is a creative, modern facility that is flexible to both weather and audience," DaRos said. The landscape of Tucson seems to pour into the edifice from every side. Almost every major mountain in the city can be seen from the building. Loft-style administrative offices overlook the main library floor, lending to the appearance that the staff is perched on a second-story shelf.

It will take a number of weeks to relocate and display the Poetry Center's collection in the new facility, which will be unveiled to the public at a dedication slated for October 14 from noon to 4 p.m. Guests at the dedication will include United States Poet Laureates Billy Collins and Robert Hass.

"This inspirational building will become a national destination for poetry," Browne said.