In the midst of construction, Asbury University’s Andrew S. Miller Center for Communication Arts building doesn’t look like much at first glance, with its unfinished rooms and visible construction beams nearly everywhere you turn.

But with a little imagination, one can see past the piles of debris and dust and visualize a state-of-the-art building infused with 21st century technology that is expected to create a synergy and boost student enrollment in the media department.

The $12.1 million project, modeled after 20th Century Fox, is set to be completed by December with classes beginning there in January, according to Randy Richardson, director of capital construction and facilities planning.

“There is actually no other program like it in the nation, and we are real excited to have it here in central Kentucky,” University President Sandra Gray said. “It really is a program that is attracting students all over the country and outside (of the country) because of its uniqueness designed to give students first-hand experience.”

The center will be named after Asbury College alumnus and former Board of Trustees member Andrew S. Miller. As a retired commissioner of the Salvation Army, he served in top leadership positions in three of the four U.S. territories, and ultimately as a national commander. The Salvation Army led a fundraising effort, raising $2.5 million to have the center named after Miller.

Currently, the media communications department is housed in three different buildings. The new 52,220-square-foot building will house the entire media department in the same building, including the campus newspaper, radio station, theater, classrooms and TV studio.

Designed by architectural firm Sherman Carter Barnhart through the visions of university faculty, much emphasis was placed on dual uses and the latest technology.

The rear of the building doubles as a back lot movie set with the facade taking on the appearance of town homes, businesses, a movie theater and a fire station.

Inside, a 16-student classroom and a sound studio doubles as a movie set. The inside of the rooms will contain all the needed materials to produce audio recordings, while the outside of the classroom takes on the appearance of a brick facade of businesses that can be used as a movie set.

“They (faculty) were very forward-thinking in what needed to happen,” Gray said. “The back-lot idea plus a street scene inside meet the need to film right here on site and not have to find ways to shoot footage.”

The two-floor, split-level building boasts a grand staircase and display case of student work. The building will also include a black-box theater that will allow drama students to transform the stage into various designs.

Classrooms will be capable of streaming live video with Asbury’s Florida campus so students there can sit in on lectures and vice versa.

One of the rooms turns into a mini cinema with theater-type seating complete with cup holders, a 16-foot wide screen that lowers from the ceiling and blackout curtains for the full movie effect. This will allow students to show their parents and friends their work.

“What the school has done with what they have is outstanding,” Richardson said about the building. “It’s very unusual.”

Even though the building is not set to open until 2011, it has already proven to be an effective recruiting tool, Gray said.

“It has created a good bit of attention,” Gray said. “It is a very strong drawing card for us, a strong way to promote media and film.”