ATHENS, Ohio -- Work on the building pad for Ohio University's new lecture hall facility is underway. The ground at the site, which is located on the corner of Richland Avenue and South Green Drive, will be raised to accommodate the 100-year flood plain for that area.

Construction on the 44,000-square-foot lecture hall facility is scheduled to begin this summer with a completion date of December 2003.

The building will include four large lecture halls that seat between 130 and 250 people and a rotunda. In addition to classroom space, the state-of-the-art facility also will provide meeting space for the Ohio University Board of Trustees and Administrative, Classified, Faculty and Student senates.

The lecture hall facility, which has yet to be named, was made possible by a $5 million gift from Robert Walter, chairman and CEO of Cardinal Health, Inc., and his wife, Peggy McGreevey Walter, both Ohio University graduates.

The Walter's gift was in support of Ohio University's Bicentennial Campaign, which has a goal of raising more than $200 million by 2004, the university's 200th anniversary. The campaign, which has raised more than $140 million, will provide money for scholarships, endowed chairs and named professorships, technological enhancements, innovative programs, and some capital improvements.

In celebration of the Bicentennial Campaign, a new Bicentennial Park will be constructed between the lecture hall building and Richland Avenue. The park will feature a landscape art piece by Athens, Ohio, native Maya Lin, who also designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The park will provide green space to the Richland Avenue entrance to campus.