BY BOB RAYNER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Jan 23, 2007

When Rick Boyko came to town three years ago to head the VCU Adcenter, he rode past a faded but distinctive old building a couple of blocks south of The Jefferson Hotel.

"I said, 'That would be a great building for the Adcenter,'" Boyko recalled.

He was right -- and willing to give $1 million to make sure.

By the end of this year, Virginia Commonwealth University's nationally acclaimed graduate advertising school is slated to move into what had been the Central Belting, Hose and Rubber Co. building on South Jefferson Street. That's near the university's under-construction business school and expanding engineering school.

Boyko was chief creative officer and co-president of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide Inc., one of the country's major advertising agencies, before migrating to the Adcenter, so he's accustomed to thinking big and getting things done.

Since becoming managing director in 2003, Boyko has led the effort to find a new home for the Adcenter, which is fast outgrowing the Shockoe Slip offices it occupied since its founding in 1996.

"It's a squirrel's nest," he said, with long halls, airless cubicles and not enough space for a school that has grown to 170 students and a dozen full-time faculty members.

The Adcenter is ready to unleash a $10 million development campaign. Boyko and his wife, Barbara, decided to jump-start the effort with the $1 million contribution.

He hopes the donation will inspire or shame -- others in the ad business to pony up.

"If you've got some skin in the game, it makes it a lot harder for people to say no," Boyko said.

Mike Hughes, who is president and creative director of The Martin Agency and has been chairman of the Adcenter's board of directors since its inception, called Boyko's donation a remarkable act of leadership.

"Our industry doesn't have a great record of supporting industry education," Hughes said. "Rick's amazing gift should, I would hope, show the way for the industry."

VCU is footing the initial $9 million construction bill, said Beth Harrington, the Adcenter's senior director of development. The campaign will raise money to repay the university and create an endowment for future needs.

Boyko promises that the Adcenter's transformation of the old building built as a carriage house for The Jefferson -- will create a place like no other in Richmond.

Clive Wilkinson, who has designed workspace for ad agencies around the world and is working on a project at Google's headquarters, is the Adcenter's lead architect. He describes his work here as space that "will provide all the tools to support imaginative creative thinking. Collaboration and teamwork is crucial in creative thinking."

That's why the new Adcenter will celebrate airy spaces and minimize barriers. Even the faculty will work without office walls.

The 27,000-square-foot school, including about 7,000 square feet in a modern addition attached to the old garage, will give the Adcenter about 30 percent more room than its current digs. But improvement in the ambience will be immeasurable, Boyko said.

"It's going to be infused with color, a place where people will get excited when they walk in."

Contact staff writer Bob Rayner at brayner@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6073.