“I would just emphasize from a project timeline standpoint that construction is presently in the design phase,” Steve Breitweiser, project manager, said in an email.

Breitwieser said the Siebel Center will be located between Fourth and Sixth streets.

The center will allow students from many different disciplines to come together and work on projects, Weightman said. Undergraduate students will be able to “design (projects), make prototypes, test them out and so on, all in the same space, in the same building.”

According to a 2015 study done by CannonDesign, institutions throughout the country are trading in traditional teaching methods for new pedagogical techniques.

This center is going to  “create a place that will enable undergraduate students from across the University to engage in design thinking, design making and design learning both within and outside the curriculum,” Weightman said.

One of the center’s goals is to put student teams together from all over the campus.

“The goal for the Siebel Center for Design will be to facilitate collaboration and learning across disciplines, realities and cultures through diverse experiences bold in problem-framing, rich in design-thinking and uninhibited in risk-taking,” Breitweiser said.

The Siebel Center design team has a space at Grainger Library, where they will be holding events and classes associated with the center from now to the opening of the center, Weightman said.

“We’re taking something we already do and planning to do a lot more of it,” Weightman said.

Weightman said he encourages students to keep a lookout for these classes in the next year and wants students to get involved.

“It was always seen as something that was significant to celebrate the 150 years of the University,” Weightman said.

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