Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine unveil USC's newest building dedicated to arts, technology

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Thursday, October 3, 2019
Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine unveil USC's newest building
Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for USC's newest building named after them.

EXPOSITION PARK, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The University of Southern California unveiled its newest addition to the campus, the 40,000-square foot Iovine and Young Hall.

The building is a state of the art facility that promises to fuse technology with the arts.

"It's not easy to put these disciplines from all these different areas and have them play in an orchestra together," said Jimmy Iovine. "That's why no one's really tried it before."

Iovine and Andre Young, known to most people as rapper and music producer Dr. Dre, are the two men who funded most of this project.

The founders of Beats Electronics donated $70 million dollars to the school back in 2013 after saying their company struggled to hire graduates who were masters of both tech and the arts.

"It's very hard to find people that come out of school with both disciplines, the arts and technology, who understand the language," Iovine said.

Much of Iovine and Young Hall houses industrial looking facilities that include 3-D printers and laser etching machinery. The building is already up and running after six years in the making.

"It is built to embody entrepreneurship and innovation," said USC President Carol Folt. "Creativity, resilience, the personal stories represented by the founders and so many people here - that's a huge part of it."