UPDATE: Jerry Falwell Library groundbreaking moved to Wednesday

UPDATE: Due to forecasted inclement weather, the Jerry Falwell Library Groundbreaking Ceremony has been postponed to Wednesday, March 7.

Liberty University will break ground on its largest building project to date – the new Jerry Falwell Library – at 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday, March 7. Liberty’s convocation will move outside at that time.

Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr., along with members of the administration and Board of Trustees, will join students, faculty and guests behind the Schilling Center.

The event will stream live on Liberty’s facebook page.

The $50 million project was announced in October 2011 and is part of a quarter of a billion dollar campus transformation planned in the next five years.

Located at the heart of campus, the new four-story, 170,000-square-foot structure will be the first building at Liberty to be named for its founder and will contain a museum that will memorialize his life and ministry.

The building will be a blend of Jeffersonian features and modern architecture. It will be adjacent to a new commons area, which will be bigger than the lawn at the University of Virginia, and will overlook a new lake behind the Vines Center, the university’s basketball arena and convocation center.

The library will integrate new information technologies with traditional resources, with portions of the collection stored in a state-of-the-art automated retrieval system. The main entry floor will provide the latest in computer lab technology, research assistance and customer service, while the upper floors will be primarily quiet study areas. An open four-story atrium will rise from the museum and through three floors of learning commons areas, an open two-story traditional reading room, terraces of study spaces inside and outside, and an open two-story food court to provide dining service for the more than 2 million visits expected to this facility each year.