The College of Design will break ground Saturday for a $3 million project titled “Threshold 2000,” named for the celebration of the college’s 20-year anniversary in the year 2000.

The construction will involve adding about 8,000 square feet to the building, including a new auditorium, computing areas and additional studio and shop space, with renovations taking place both inside and outside the current Design Building.

The project is scheduled to be finished by July 1, 1999, said College of Design Dean Mark Engelbrecht.

“We hope it will be completed in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the college,” said Stacy Cullison, director of development for the College of Design.

Contracted to Baldwin/White Architects of Des Moines, the plans have been designed to blend with the current building that was built by the same architecture firm 20 years ago.

Preparations for the ground-breaking began earlier this week, including erecting fences and clearing shrubs to make room for construction workers.

“This project signifies an important opening to our future development,” Engelbrecht said.

“It combines the new facility and other improvements with a substantial fusion of technology into the project to allow the college to become more effective,” he said.

To help improve the College of Design, ISU architecture graduate John Rogers has made a deferred donation of $600,000 to create a computational endowment fund for the college, according to a press release.

“Technology is playing an incredibly important part in the way we teach and the way we learn,” Engelbrecht said.

The 250-seat auditorium will be named after the late Karol Kocimski, a professor in architecture at ISU for 20 years, and his wife Lila, who donated their estate to the College of Design.

Engelbrecht, ISU President Martin Jischke and ISU Foundation President Thomas Mitchell will attend the ground-breaking ceremony and reception this Saturday at 10 a.m.

The university is providing $1 million for the project and the remaining $2 million will come from private contributors, according to a press release.

Gifts from donors include $250,000 from the Gardner and Florence Call Cowels Foundation in Des Moines, $85,000 from ISU graduate Charles Durham and an additional $50,000 from Rogers.

“It’ll be disruptive for a year, but it will be worth it when it’s done,” Cullison said.