New center at Parsons New School

On Tuesday, a groundbreaking ceremony was held at Parsons The New School for Design for the new $7 million Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at 13th St. and Fifth Ave. The center will unite at street level several historic buildings that the university has occupied since the 1970s. The 25,000-square-foot space will include galleries, meeting rooms, an archives center, lecture hall and design store. At left, New School president Bob Kerrey presented Johnson with a ceremonial hammer as Paul Goldberger, Parsons dean looked on at the ceremony. Johnson, the C.E.O. of Salamander Hospitality, co-founded Black Entertainment Television with her former husband in 1980 and sold it to Viacom for $3 billion in 1997.