Officials from Northwestern and Ford Motor Co. broke ground for the $30 million Ford Engineering Design Center on the lawn just south of the Technological Institute on Wednesday. The event kicked off NU’s second Ford Engineering Week.

“This building will provide 75,000 square feet of flexible, state-of-the-art space for design students,” McCormick Dean John Birge said to a tent full of administrators, faculty, Ford representatives and scattered students.

The Ford center is the last of six buildings funded by Campaign Northwestern to begin construction and is the fifth building being erected on the Evanston Campus. Three of those buildings – the nanofabrication center, the McCormick Tribune Center and Slivka Residential College – are scheduled to be finished by fall.

The six-story Ford center, scheduled to open fall 2004, will overlook the Shakespeare Garden and provide a closed walkway to Tech.

Anne Stevens, Ford’s vice president for North American vehicle operations, said her company has a responsibility to fund research on a more energy-efficient motor. Ford donated $10 million to the building project last spring.

“We must use our funds and technological resources to sustain the environment for the future,” Stevens said. “I can think of no better partners to tackle this than Ford Motor Company and Northwestern.”

The tent contained a hybrid of the Ford Escape, which Ford hopes will be the first sport utility vehicle to run on a dual engine of electricity and gasoline. An environment-friendly student-designed car, the Mini Baja, was also on display.

Stevens and Birge were joined on the podium by three other speakers, including University President Henry Bienen.

Bienen said the center will “usher in a new era of education” at McCormick, and joked that his only worry is the size of the electric bills resulting from the center’s 24-hour availability.

The groundbreaking concluded with an unveiling of the design, a gray building lined with windows.

Aida Ralat, a McCormick junior, said the new building will at least make her class time commute better.

“Making the trek from Tech to (the design center) is the biggest pain in the ass for any engineering student,” she said. “If they keep it open 24/7 it’d be really helpful for the student body.”