KEVIN KLAUS/Arizona Daily Wildcat Ground is broken for the expansion of the Meinel Optical Sciences Center yesterday. The parking lot next to the Main Library is slated to become the location for the expansion, which will double the center's size. Construction is scheduled to begin in November.

As passengers get off planes at Tucson International Airport, a sign with a picture of mayor Bob Walkup reads, "Welcome to Optics Valley," and the latest campus construction prospect reinforces that local motto.

Yesterday, the UA broke ground on a $17.2 million expansion of the Meinel Optical Sciences Center, making way for the building to double its size toward the Main Library with the addition of new classrooms, offices, research facilities and conference rooms.

The addition will be dubbed the West Wing, since Meinel's 1988 expansion was called the New Wing. It is fantastic that the groundbreaking is here. I've been dreaming about it," said Jim Wyant, director of the center.

Construction on the new wing is scheduled to start in November.

The latest expansion of the 32-year-old building will feature an entry-level plaza, new teaching and research laboratories, a new exhibit-intensive lobby, an expanded reading room, faculty offices, informal discussion areas and conference space.

"Other than simply providing space for programs, modern facilities and a new building image, it will give us new lobby for community outreach whether that be K ö 12 or the university community," said John Greivenkamp, optical sciences professor and the center's representative to the architects.

The project will also retrofit the present building with new classrooms and new teaching laboratories.

"It is a combination of a need for more research space, classrooms and offices," Greivenkamp said. "In essence, we significantly need more space to accommodate growth."

The center, which studies the science and technology of light, color, vision and imaging, runs on $20 million a year ÷ $2.7 of which comes from the state ÷ and has grown to 190 graduate students, 117 undergraduates and over 50 faculty, Wyant said.

The center ÷ which has Arizona's two Nobel Prize winners on its faculty ÷ is the best in the country, Wyant said.

"It ranks first. There is no doubt," he said.

During his speech at the groundbreaking ceremony yesterday, Dick Powell, vice president for research and former director of the center, joked that when he was director nine years ago, the funding scheme was to sell coffee mugs.

The latest expansion was delayed until this year due to funding shortfalls.

Some of the funding to cover the wing's $17.2 million price tag comes from Proposition 301 and some from research grants, Greivenkamp said.

Proposition 301 is a 0.6 percent sales tax that voters approved in 2000, of which the UA's share ÷ about $16.3 to $20.1 million per year ÷ provides money for biotechnology, bioscience, information technology, optics, water and math and science teacher preparation.

But the new building will take over the Visitor's Center parking lot, making for less parking near the Main Library.

The Visitor's Center parking lot now has 111 parking spaces, said Mike Delahanty, Parking and Transportation Services operations manager.

The Visitor's Center itself also moved into a temporary location on East University Boulevard in August, because of the construction.

The expansion is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2004 and is not expected to take up space on the UA Mall, said Melissa Dryden, public information coordinator for Facilities Design and Construction.