By Megan Boatwright, Local News 8 Reporter

For 9-years BYU-Idaho has been working on two very important expansion projects.  The new student center was officially completed at the beginning of September leaving only the auditorium.  Thursday morning Local News 8 took an inside tour of the construction site.   

Out of the maze and dust of construction a picture of the future is starting to emerge.  "This is the South East corridor," said Stephen Jacobsen, with Okland Construction.   

For the last two years Jacobsen and BYU-Idaho Project Coordinator, Andrew Johnson, have headed up construction of the new building, and an auditorium is not the only feature of the building. 

"The black posts attached to the beams will support the curtains that divide the basketball courts," Jacobsen said while pointing out different features of the room.   

The auditorium building is divided in two parts.  A portion will become the hub of intramural sports at the university; including 10 interchangeable basketball, volleyball, tennis courts and a mile long indoor track on the mezzanine level.  The area covers 65,000 square feet of the building.

"The lobby will serve as a meet and greet place before heading to the auditorium," Johnson said.    

As the tour progresses it seems all roads lead towards the same destination.  Once the auditorium is complete it will seat over 15,000 people.  According to BYU-Idaho the project should be completed within the next year and a half. 

To the naked eye, the building may appear like nothing more than a meeting room, but to the BYU-Idaho community it is much more. 

"An icon on campus," Johnson said.  "It's certainly the biggest building of its type in Southeast Idaho."