A 3D digital model of the $5-million Hellenic Studies Center that is being built on the University of Rhode Island campus.

Courtesy of Dimitris Vlachopoulos

The University of Rhode Island has broken ground on a $5-million Hellenic Studies Center that will feature several classrooms, as well as marble columns, a Byzantine chapel and an outdoor theater.

The 22,000-square-foot building is designed to highlight the contributions of ancient Greece to Western civilization and, by extension, disciplines studied by as many as 2,000 URI students a year, including art, classical studies, history, literature, philosophy, rhetoric, theater and underwater archaeology.

Construction of the distinctive facility will be paid for by Paideia, a nonprofit Greek cultural organization, which will share the building with URI. The university has agreed to pay an estimated $180,000 a year in heat, electricity and maintenance costs. In addition to several classrooms, the center will be home to the university’s Humanities Center, which grants fellowships to graduate students and faculty. The educational portion of the building will be called Rodos, in honor of the Greek island of Rhodes and Rhode Island.

The Hellenic Center holds another distinction: a 99-year lease — that will cost Paideia a dollar a year approved by the Board of Governors for Higher Education and the General Assembly in 2002. Most leases on state-owned property last just 10 years, with a 10-year extension. But Paideia takes a longer view of history and wanted a more lasting agreement, say URI officials.

The building is scheduled to open in the fall of 2011. Former URI President Robert L. Carothers, a strong supporter of the project, attended the groundbreaking on June 30, one of his last official acts before stepping down later that day.

On June 29, the Board of Governors at the last moment voted to preserve the classical studies major, which had been slated for reduction to a minor because of the low number of students graduating from the program. As many more students take introductory-level classes in classics, including ancient history, mythology and ancient art history, the program has been preserved.

“Many of our core values and basic institutions derive from Greek civilization,” Carothers said. “The presence on the Kingston campus of a center for the study of classical Hellenic thought and art will give us a richer appreciation of the past and help shape more thoughtful and reflective graduates for the future.”

According to the lease agreement, URI will use three-quarters of the building and will pay 75 percent of the costs to operate the facility, including electricity, heat, cleaning and maintenance, expenses estimated to be about $178,000 a year, said J. Vernon Wyman, assistant vice president for business services. Paideia will pay the remaining portion of operating expenses and is responsible for all major capital repairs.

Although the state has slashed $30 million in financing to the state’s three public colleges over the past two years, forcing URI to leave dozens of positions vacant, lay off some staff, trim small programs and increase tuition and fees by 10 percent, URI officials say the Hellenic Center is a welcome addition to the Kingston campus. They say it will provide the university with needed academic space at a relatively low cost.

Designs of the center illustrate a stately, imposing classical structure with an outdoor theater that will be next to the Fine Arts building.

Wyman said that because Paideia, a nonprofit organization, is hiring contractors and paying for the building, the facility will be exempt from a state requirement that it be built to a series of environmental standards — called “LEED certified” for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. But he said URI has a say over the design and construction and will review all plans.

Despina Metakos, a 1991 URI alumna and a member of Paideia, says she expects the project will receive generous support from the Greek-American community in Rhode Island and beyond.

To date, the group has raised $250,000 to begin work on the foundation, and another $250,000 in promised services, such as architectural and engineering support. Architect Stephanos Nousioupoulos, of New London, Conn., donated $500,000 worth of architectural plans, Metakos said.

“If you build it, they will come,” Metakos said. “The next 6 to 12 months will be our target to aggressively fundraise. We are already getting offers from around the country.”

Metakos said the building underscores the importance of ancient Greece to the sciences, mathematics, medicine, architecture and democracy.

“We are extraordinarily proud of our heritage,” she said. “Not everyone can travel to Greece. But we want people to take a ride down to URI and walk through the building and see a production in the open-air theater and explore an authentic Byzantine chapel. It will be almost like a museum.”

Paideia has constructed cultural centers and monuments near other college campuses, including the Center for Hellenic Studies at University of Connecticut at Storrs, which was built in 1995.

However, that center was not built on university land and UConn does not hold classes there nor does it pay for any of the building’s operational costs, except for water and sewer, services the university extends to much of the Storrs community, said university spokesman Richard Veilleux.

“We have an excellent relationship with the center and they have in the past sponsored some of our students to study abroad in Greece,” Veilleux said. “But we provide no funding directly to the center.”

In contrast, URI plans to hold art history classes at the Rodos building, and may offer other courses there as well, said Winifred Brownell, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

“So much of our Western civilization can trace roots to Hellenic culture,” Brownell said.

“I think it’s terrific that through this building, the cultural connection to the past will be symbolized.”

jjordan@projo.com