Our Facilities

School of Illustration

Our Facilities

The Academy's Illustration Department is housed in a uniquely 'San Francisco' style building a block and a half from bustling Union Square. The building is five stories and was built in 1909 as a men's club. The original libraries, meeting rooms, a theater and a ballroom have been turned into drawing/painting studios and classrooms with 14' high ceilings. The Cable Car runs right by our front door!

The Illustration Department has 100's of costumes and props used for Clothed/costumed Figure Drawing Classes. On the second floor there are complete animation labs, classrooms with the latest equipment. Recent improvements include 21 new illustration titles in the Library and new state-of-the-art lighting for illustration drawing and painting classes. The 2D Animation program features new pencil test equipment (lunchbox SNYC) at every testing station, a Media 100 editing station and oversized batch scanner in the graduate lab, and an experimental animation classroom with five new stations for capturing animation and two new emac's.

The Department has collected original illustrations and samples of professional artwork for 40 years. They are used as examples, for reference and inspiration by the instructors and students.