Just a couple of months ago it was a hole in the ground, but seemingly by itself, a steel structure has emerged from the ground at the corner of N. Milwaukee St. and E. State St.

When construction is complete, the building will be known as the Milwaukee School of Engineering’s Dwight and Dian Diercks Computational Science Hall. Located at 1025 N. Milwaukee St., the four-story structure will have four floors of space for classrooms, faculty offices and a 256-seat auditorium.

Long-time MSOE architectural partner Ramlow/Stein Architects is designing the 64,000-square-foot building, while Mortenson Construction is leading the general contracting.

The new facility and a new bachelors of computer science degree program are being funded by a gift from Dwight Diercks, a 1990 graduate of the school, and his wife Dian. The gift, the largest in the school’s 115-year-history, was made possible by Diercks’ role as NVIDIA’s vice president of software engineering at the approximately 11,000 employee tech company. He’s been with the California-based company since the early 1990’s when he joined as the 22nd employee.

Click here to read more about the project.