By Karen Klinger

Lesley University in March will unveil its latest plans to relocate the Art Institute of Boston to Porter Square by transforming an historic church into a showcase arts complex with studios, galleries, a glass atrium and a library open to the public.

The university merged with the nearly century-old AIB in Kenmore Square a decade ago and had been searching for a new Cambridge location for the school when the opportunity came up in 2006 for it to buy the North Prospect Church, a white-steepled structure circa 1845 conveniently located adjacent to Lesley's University Hall (the old Sears Roebuck building) on Massachusetts Avenue.

At a recent meeting of the Porter Square Neighbors Association, Lesley spokesman Bill Doncaster offered a preview of plans for the site drawn up by the Cambridge-based architectural firm of Bruner/Cott, which has won national awards for its work in turning an old factory in North Adams into the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCa), the largest museum of its kind in the United States.

Doncaster said Lesley will hold a community meeting, tentatively scheduled for March 20 at 7 p.m. in the University Hall Amphitheater, to share its ideas for AIB's new home with Cambridge and Somerville residents. The architects' most recent plans call for the church, which was moved to its current site from its original location in Harvard Square, to be moved again to the vacant southeastern part of the property. Five- and three-story wings would be attached to the church to form a U-shape, with the center enclosed by an atrium which would constitute an "arts commons," Doncaster said.

While often overlooked in the shadow of its imposing academic neighbors, Harvard and MIT, Lesley is in the midst of an ambitious multi-year expansion program that has seen its annual budget grow to $90 million and total enrollment increase to more than 12,000--mostly graduate students in education--at 150 centers in 23 states. Locally, Lesley has four colleges on three campuses, including the AIB, the undergraduate Lesley College and the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences on its main campus in the Agassiz neighborhood and the School of Education on the Porter Square campus.

As part of its expansion, the university plans to increase the number of undergraduate students housed on its main campus from the current 650 to 1,000. Doncaster said the school hopes to break ground in June on a five-story, 80-bed dormitory on property at 1663 Massachusetts Ave. it has been leasing to Budget Car Rental. In addition, the university plans to build a three-story, 27-bed student residence around the corner on Wendell Street.

In an effort to have residents involved in its long-range planning, Lesley is a partner in the Lesley/Neighborhoods Working Group, whose members include representatives of the city of Cambridge and neighborhoods adjacent to the main and Porter Square campuses. Doncaster said one of the university's aims in establishing the new AIB complex is to attract community participation through workshops, classes, access to the library and exhibitions by local, national and international artists.