Construction recently began on a building on the eastern side of The University of Alabama campus and will provide a new home to the various offices of The University of Alabama System and the UA Board of Trustees.

The new building, part of a project started in 2011, is situated a short distance from Druid City Hospital and the University Rec Center at the intersection of University Boulevard and 5th Avenue and will be called Sidney McDonald Hall when completed.

McDonald, a businessman from Arab, Ala., attended the University and graduated from the College of Commerce and Business Administration in 1961. He went on to preside over a long-distance telephone carrier and served as president of the UA Board of Trustees during the 1990s.

A donation of $3.5 million from McDonald to the University helped finance the $13.2 million project, currently under construction by J.T. Harrison Construction Company Inc. of Tuscaloosa. While reluctant at first to accept the naming of the building after himself, McDonald agreed at the urging of family and friends.

The new building will consolidate the various offices of the chancellor and Board of Trustees from scattered buildings across campus and place them into one single building.

“We haven’t had a new building in 40-plus years. This current building was built before there was even a chancellor,” Kellee Reinhart, Vice Chancellor for System Relations, said.

The project, Reinhart said, was brought about by the need to have a more efficient office to oversee the growth of schools within the UA system.

“It’s going to help the growth of our students,” Reinhart said. “This will enable us to all be together under one roof, and it will enhance collaboration and efficiency for not just us, but all three of the campuses.”

The UA system expects to have the building completely finished by next spring with staff members moved in soon after.