Compared to its former home in a windowless warehouse, the new location of the Pacific Northwest College of Art is a lightshow of arching windows, soaring skylights and gleeming marble walls.

But, it took nine years and $34 million.

On Thursday, Mayor Charlie Hales joined project managers and the media on a tour of the private college's new home on the North Park Blocks, near Union Station. Students started classes in the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design last month.

Built in 1919 in the Italian Renaissance style, the former federal building housed a post office, immigration services and a local branch of the Department of Homeland Security until last year. Over the years, ceilings dropped, skylights were covered and many original details disappeared, said Portland architect Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture, who designed the renovation.

"It was a very introverted building," he said. "It was encrusted with a lot of detritus. We had to imagine a bright and alive building, like mining an old building."

Cloepfil's portfolio includes the Wieden+Kennedy headquarters in the Pearl District and the re-design of New York City's 2 Columbus Circle for the Museum of Arts and Design.

PNCA's 145,000 square-foot, six-story building - an entire city block - houses classrooms, studios with names such as Innovation and Resilience, performance spaces and offices, with 279 windows. In 1979, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Original maple and tile floors shine. Marble walls reflect light. Bare walls await artwork. A spacious printmaking studio provides room for lithography, letterpress, intaglio (cut images) and silkscreen printing.

"The natural light is great," said senior Mary Weisenburger, 22, who graduates in May with a degree in painting. "I hope the building will allow a much bigger student body. There are only 70 people in my class. I would love to see that double."

But the standout feature is a central atrium with a suspended mezzanine floor. Cables that resemble ship's rigging, suspend the floor underneath glass and girders.

Money for the project came from a $15 million capital campaign and from $15.8 million in loans from the Portland Development Commission. The development commission owns the building and is leasing it back to the school for $1 a year.

PNCA president Tom Manley said he hoped the building would serve a new generation of students. "We think it will be a magnetic place."

-- David Stabler

dstabler@oregonian.com

503-221-8217

@davidstabler