CNN plays on the TVs in the background and painters' scaffolding sits on the first floor in the Tanner Building atrium in front of the west wall. Recently broken through to connect the addition to the original building, the wall holds a large poster that reads, "Something big is happening right here."

Big is right.

The N. Eldon Tanner Building addition, which broke ground on April 25, 2007, and is scheduled to be finished July 30 of this year, is 76,000 square feet. It resembles the original structure which was finished in 1982 and dedicated on April 5, 1983 by President Gordon B. Hinckley. The addition will house twelve new classrooms, faculty and administrative offices, MBA program offices, four conference rooms, a computer networking teaching room and a large lecture hall.

The four-story addition will bring up-to-date features to students. There will be plenty of room for larger group projects. The addition will house 39 new group study rooms complete with large LCD screens to which students can hook-up their laptops.

"When people walk through the building they will notice that, with few exceptions, the whole building is a student oriented building, not a faculty one," said Richard Dalebout, an associate professor in the School of Accountancy and the building committee chair.

The addition also provides students with a way to relax when they are not in classes or group study sessions - a New York-style deli and student commons.

Students currently attend class as construction goes on around them.

"My classroom has been changed like six different times," said senior Chelsea Holland, "but they [professors] just let us know about the changes on Blackboard."

With work happening on both the Tanner Building and the Richards Building, parking spaces were short this past year. However, constructed just north of the addition is a three-level parking structure that will add about 66 parking spots to the school.

During the winter, crews faced snowy weather that can make it hard to keep up the pace on the construction work.

"It needs to be warm to hang drywall and to paint, and has to be at least 40 degrees to fire-proof the steel," said Kip Walter, the project manager for the addition, in a Marriot Alumni Magazine article.

"It's been harder to enter the building, and the heater didn't work last fall," said Stefanie Maughan, a business finance major. "But it [the construction] is not very loud,"

The building has been completely funded through private contributions from the Marriott Family Foundation, the N. Eldon Tanner Trust and the National Advisory Council.

"It's really wonderful to have all those donations," Maughan said. "I've heard about a lot of people donating."

The addition is attached to the Tanner building on the west wall with a four-story glass atrium.

The structure is unique in design and as Dalebout said, "There's no other combination of buildings on campus quite like it."

Live feed of the Tanner addition construction progress can be viewed at marriottschool.byu.edu.