The best way to get between two points on the Mount Saint Mary’s College campus south of Downtown is with some art to view along the way—at least if your going to the newly opened Ken Skinner Parking Pavilion.
Mount St. Mary’s operates its Doheny Campus in the Figueroa Corridor, near 23rd and Figueroa streets, where it offers a number of four-year and two-year degrees, as well as graduate studies and various certificate programs. The college also operates its Chalon campus in the Westwood district on the Westside.
The recent addition of the new three-story structure adds 150 parking spaces to the Figueroa Corridor campus.
The Adams Art Walk covers a pathway that’s approximately 100 feet long and connects the center of campus to the parking structure, which is located near 23rd Street and Park Grove Avenue.
The Art Walk features two sculptures by local artists: “Mother & Child,” by Julie MacDonald; and “Balance Beam” by Michael Zapponi.
Both of the sculptures were recently re-located to the Art Walk from their prior home at the Ketchum YMCA facility at 401 S. Hope Street.
College officials said that the Art Walk has been designed to complement the historic nature of the campus itself—which includes lush grounds and historic early-1900s houses that have been transformed into classroom and residential facilities for students—as well as the West Adams neighborhood that borders the school.
College officials were scheduled as of presstime to dedicate the new parking structure and Art Walk in ceremonies on June 26.
The Art Walk has been funded by David V. Adams, a trustee of the college. The pathway is named for his father and uncle, Morgan Adams Jr. and James (Peter) H. Adams II, respectively. The two men lived at 21 Chester Place in the 1920s, decades before the building became part of what is now part of the Mount St. Mary’s campus.
The new parking structure is named for the late Ken Skinner, who served as executive vice president of the Fritz B. Burns Foundation, an organization that has been a prominent supporter of the college.
Mount St. Mary’s is an independent, Roman Catholic institution. It is the only Catholic college primarily for women in the Western U.S. Its undergraduate program is open to women only. The college accepts men into some of its graduate programs.
The recent dedication ceremony for the parking structure and Art Walk is one of several held in recent months to mark the completion of various improvement projects on the campus.
The projects have been financed through the college’s “Invest in the Mount” campaign. The campaign started in 2005 and has so far raised $53 million.
