Before ground was even broken for the new BYU Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center on June 23, more than 50,000 BYU students, faculty, alumni and friends had already contributed to the effort.

Courtesy BYU

Artist's rendering depicts 80,000-square-foot BYU Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center, with distinctive clock tower, as a front gate to the university. Completion is expected fall 2007.

Work for the Provo building, bearing President Hinckley's name and begun on his 96th birthday, will stand as a tribute to him, said John Lewis, BYU associate advancement vice president.

Complete coverage of the groundbreaking ceremony, which took place after the Church News printing deadline, will be included in next week's edition.

The building, intended to provide outreach for BYU, is appropriately named for President Hinckley, a man who has reached out to so many worldwide, Brother Lewis said. "There is a relationship between the building's purpose and namesake."

Designed as a place to welcome friends of the university, the 80,000-square-foot building will act as a campus home for BYU alumni, a front gate to the university and a place to feel the BYU experience, he said.

Expected to be completed in fall 2007, the building will include three stories above ground with a lower level. It is intended to "create a residential homey atmosphere," said Brother Lewis. A distinctive clock tower and gabled roof are intended to help identify the building and give it a homelike feeling, he said.

The building, located west of the campus administration building, also includes a brick-and-stone exterior, with a "backyard" space on the west side that will be used for university receptions and meetings.

The main floor of the building will provide hosting and meeting space for visitors and alumni, a "family room," and a visitors center that will tell the story of BYU and its relationship with the Church. Second and third floors will largely be office space, but will also include an alumni business center.

Brother Lewis said the university has needed a new alumni building for more than 15 years, replacing the older building dedicated in 1962. In recent years, he added, the university has also seen a need to provide a place where visitors can learn about the university and ask questions about the "unique mission of this place and the role it plays in the Church."

He said many contributors to the project recognized the "great missionary work that can be done by being able to tell this story in a more focused and visible way."

In addition, he said, many contributors see the building as a "really terrific way to pay tribute to President Hinckley and love the fact that there is going to be a building on the campus that is going to bear his name."

For more information on the building and construction photos and video, please see byu.edu/gbhb.

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