It may have taken 30 years but, thanks to a large donation, Iowa State will finally have its own “walk-in Smithsonian” of university history and memorabilia.

The university and the ISU Alumni Association announced Monday that they had reached more than 90 percent of their funding goal for the creation of a new alumni center.

Jeff Johnson, director of the alumni association, said one of the many benefits the creation of an alumni center building will provide is the ability for community members to look at a one-of-a-kind gallery of ISU memorabilia.

“It will be like walking into the Smithsonian,” Johnson said, listing items that will be displayed in the new facility, including the first diplomas awarded by the university, original lithographs and photos of Iowa State after it was first built, pamphlets and programs of the university’s first classes and disciplines, a first-ever ISU class ring and all 100 university yearbooks.

“People will be able to get a sense of how the institution has grown over the years and get a sense of Iowa State’s developing excellence,” he said. “Being able to display such things in this center will be an incredible tool in the effort to engage people.”

The association has been forced to store such items because of lack of space in current facilities. The association is especially constrained in its current space in Fisher-Nickell Hall, where it will be until the center is built. The association moved out of the Memorial Union last July to make room for renovations.

Roy and Bobbi Reiman — whose contributions and donations to the university include the establishment of Reiman Gardens — provided the lead gift of $9 million to fund the entire construction cost of the new facility.

To date, contributions for the project — including the Reiman’s gift and contributions from 50 other donors — have reached a little more than $10 million. The center is budgeted to cost $11 million, including the $9 million cost for construction and a $2 million endowment to help complete and maintain the facility.

“Thanks to the generosity of Roy and Bobbi, we were able to move this on at a fast pace because we had a lead donor and another 50 donors and friends who wanted this dream to come true,” Johnson said. “We are tickled to see this dream finally become a reality.”

The new center will be built at the intersection of Beach Avenue and Country Club Boulevard. The university and association are in the process of hiring an architect to formulate the center’s design, based on an ISU program statement approved by the Iowa Board of Regents stating the required needs for the building.

“With the location of the new Alumni Association building nearby, we felt this will be a nice complement to Reiman Gardens,” said Roy Reiman, a 1957 graduate of Iowa State, past president of the ISU Alumni Association’s board of directors and owner of Reiman Publications Ltd., in a statement released by the university.

Construction is slated to last 18 months, with a completion goal in middle-to-late 2007. Johnson said there is no targeted date to begin construction because Iowa State is still in the process of gathering community input of what expectations are for the center.

Of the needs the building is expected to meet are the association’s need for better visibility, accessibility and broader opportunity of engaging those who come to Iowa State.

“It will give us the ability to interact and interface in an environment that provides engagement,” Johnson said, adding that it’s hard for the association to engage people from their current location.