Students, faculty, staff and special guests gathered at McMaster Friday to break ground on the new L.R. Wilson Hall.

Brad Duguid, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, Ted McMeekin, Minister of Community and Social Services and Red Wilson, McMaster’s Chancellor were on campus for the morning ceremony, held near Wentworth House.

They joined McMaster’s President Patrick Deane, Dean of Social Sciences Charlotte Yates, Acting Dean of Humanities Ken Cruikshank and students union President David Campbell to turn sod and celebrate the beginning of the building’s construction, which will begin shortly.

L.R. Wilson Hall will be home to the Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences. It will feature teaching and learning spaces, including a 400-seat lecture theatre, two-100 seat classrooms and a number of small classrooms.

The building will house significant liberal arts research centres such as the Wilson Institute for Canadian History and the Gilbrea Centre for Health and Aging. McMaster’s Indigenous Studies program and indigenous student support offices will be located there.

L.R. Wilson Hall will also be home to new performing arts spaces including a 350-seat concert hall and the unique “Black Box” theatre that provides space that can reconfigured for a variety of music, dance and spoken word productions

The project is possible through a $45.5-million investment from the province of Ontario and a $10-million gift from McMaster’s Chancellor L.R. Wilson.

The building is scheduled to open in September 2015.