Penn State President Graham Spanier kicked off the groundbreaking yesterday for Dickinson School of Law's new University Park building -- a $60 million project.

Lewis Katz, who the building will be named after, donated $15 million to the construction -- one of the single largest acts of philanthropy in Penn State's history. An addition at the Carlisle campus will also be named in his honor.

"This is really an opportunity to pay back the school that forever changed my good fortune," Katz said. "For my children and grand children, this is a model to show what life can reward you with."

Linking University Park to renovated facilities in Carlisle, the project will total $110 million -- the largest investment ever made in an American law school.

"I hope we will remember not the weather or the wind but what we are marking -- a model within the national legal community," Spanier said.

Philip McConnaughay, dean of the Dickinson School of Law, said the two campuses, which already have 3,300 applicants, were proposed by Katz four years ago in a meeting with Gov. Ed Rendell.

"Like most business experiences, the deal's on, the deal's off, the deal's on, the deal's off," Katz said. "That's the journey we began four years ago."

Originally, the proposal of dual campuses was considered controversial and compromising to the Carlisle campus's 173-year history.

"It was a very contentious process," Lloyd Huck, Penn State trustee, said. "With all the lawsuits and everything, it all came together in the end."

McConnaughay said the only challenge facing the law school now is the "90 miles that separates Carlisle and University Park."

Katz said Rendell, who allocated $25 million in matching funds to the project, was very supportive in the process.

"Only in a wild dream could I believe we could share in this wonderful opportunity," he said of the building that will bear his name.

The building, located near the corner of Bigler and Park avenues, will house the school of International Affairs, a venture that Cynthia Baldwin, chairwoman of the Penn State Board of Trustees, said will "distinguish Penn State from other schools."

"I've had the opportunity to participate in many ground-breakings...," she said. "As my term as chair comes to a close, we've saved the best for last."

According to a press release, the University Park facility will house a glass-enclosed library and reading room, study areas, a law clinic for pro-bono services, an auditorium and a high-tech courtroom.

Katz said he is impressed with the expected look of the building, which was displayed in ice sculpture-form at the groundbreaking ceremony. The facility is expected to be occupied by January 2009.

"When they put that picture in front of me, I was gone," Katz said. "In fact, I kept asking them not to show it."

Beam Building on Park Avenue is the law school's temporary center.

Richard Olcott of Polshek Partnership Architects, which worked on the Clinton Presidential Library and Carnegie Hall Restoration, said the library is specially designed to "create a sense of openness" and "facilitate interaction."

"Law school students spend all their time in this building -- day and night," he said adding that the ceremony was held on what will be the facility's major common space.

The H. Laddie Montague Jr. Law Library, which will include collections in both Carlisle and University Park, bears the name of a $4 million contributor.

The groundbreaking for the Carlisle facility, costing $50 million, will take place in late spring or early summer and will include the renovation of the school's center since 1918, Trickett Hall.