SUNY Oswego is spending $80 million to transform an existing building for the School of Communication, Media and Arts at the college. It's an effort to promote the school's competitive journalism program and one broadcasting professor’s family legacy lives on through the building project.

“We provide a top of the line education in media at a value price,” said Michael Riecke, broadcasting professor at SUNY Oswego.

Renovating this building is a dream that's taken decades to come true.

“We're just as competitive as some of the private schools out there. And we want to provide a facility that says, 'hey, look, we're on the same tier as some of the top media programs in the country,'” said Riecke.

All of these programs have long been housed in Lanigan Hall at SUNY Oswego, but now it's time for Hewitt Hall to get an $80 million facelift.

“You know, Lanigan is is more than 50 years old, the building itself, and it's it's time for a new space that really reflects the changes in our industry,” said Riecke.

“As you walk in on the ground floor. There's going to be a newsroom just inside the door,” said Mike Cleland, broadcasting professor at SUNY Oswego.

He’s helping to make this dream renovation come to life.

“In the early 1960s my father, Hugh Cleland, was a television engineer here at SUNY Oswego. And he helped design the original television facilities that were in here in Lanigan Hall. Now 60 years later, I'm teaching television production here and I'm working on the design for the next generation of television facilities in the new Hewitt project,” said Cleland.

“That'll serve students for the next 50 years. It's a great honor and a thrill for me for my career and lifetime.”

"So many of these industries [and] these disciplines are interconnected now [and] are interdependent, and all of them are going to be housed under the same roof, which is going to allow for a lot more opportunity for collaboration which, quite frankly, is far more realistic to the realities of our industry today,” said Riecke.

After five years of detailed planning and excitement they're expecting by this time next year, the outside of Hewitt Hall will be fully renovated. The interior renovation of Hewitt Hall is expected to finish up in the fall of 2023.