TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The University of Alabama School of Law will break ground on its new addition and renovation project Friday, March 18, at 1 p.m.

The ceremony will be held on the back lawn of the Law School with Law School Dean Ken Randall presiding over the event. UA President Robert E. Witt will give opening remarks. Former Law School Dean (1966-70) Daniel J. Meador will present the keynote address. Meador, a 1951 graduate of the Law School, was instrumental in engaging world-renowned architect Edward Durell Stone for the existing Law Center.

The Law School began to raise funds for the $13.5 million project three years ago. Since that time, many law firms, alumni and friends pledged the necessary funds. Several rooms, faculty offices, and administrative offices will be named in honor of firms or individuals.

KPS Group Inc., an architecture firm in Birmingham, is handling the project.

The Law School is adding approximately 45,000 square feet in the new addition and renovating approximately 40,000 square feet in the existing Law Center. The addition will contain new classrooms, courtroom-classrooms, faculty offices, administrative offices, a student dining-study center with food offerings, and a student lounge with a large covered terrace. Approximately 10,000 square feet of the new addition space will be devoted to the Clinical Program. This will for the first time bring all the Clinical faculty, staff and program space into the Law Center. Part of the existing Law Center will be renovated to include a computer lab that will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The building-renovation project is expected to be completed by January 2007.