The new Annenberg School building will go up just west of the new Tutor Center and university bookstore. (USC; Matt Schrader)

Posted 3:18 PM | Last updated 4:41 PM

USC officials today announced the site for a new communication and journalism building at USC.

“After close consultation with the President, we have identified a new site for our building,” said Dean Ernest J. Wilson in a message to USC faculty. “It will be located on the corner of Childs Way and Watt Way, right next to the bookstore, and will be built on the open parking lot space that is there now.”

The parking lot is nearly the geographical center of USC’s campus, and is one of the most trafficked locations already at USC.

“We are fortunate that this location will afford us a very visible and central location for our new building,” he said. “We are grateful to President Nikias for his consideration of our needs.”

Officials have indicated USC hopes to have the new building fully completed within two to three years, by fall or spring of 2013-14. No official timeline, however, has been released at this time.

Officials also announced Friday that an architecture firm has been selected to design the building.

“After lengthy presentations from four architecture firms, and discussion with the Provost’s office, Capital Construction and Development, and the university architect, we have selected an architecture firm to design our new USC Wallis Annenberg building,” the dean said.

“Harley Ellis Devereaux is a highly respected Los Angeles-based firm with offices in L.A., Chicago, San Diego, Detroit and Berkeley,” he added.

The firm has designed college and other educational buildings, including USC’s own Fine Arts building and the Culver Center of the Arts at the University of California at Riverside.

Harley Ellis Devereaux also oversaw the renovation of Doheny Hall at USC.

“The firm has a dedicated higher education division with a unique understanding of our needs,” he said. “We felt an instant connection with their representatives and their thoughtful, high quality work.”

USC Annenberg leaders have held a number of open forums to talk to faculty and students about the new facility.

Officials have pledged to build “a learner-centered environment that will feature networked, media-saturated classrooms and laboratories configured in a flexible way to take advantage of future technologies and new approaches to teaching and learning.”

The Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism will also incorporate its current building into the overall plan for the future of the school.

In October, President C.L. Max Nikias announced what he called “a new era of innovation in the digital media revolution” in the $50 million donation for a new Annenberg School building by the Annenberg Foundation and Wallis Annenberg.

At that time, a different location, across from the Lyon Center, had been mentioned as the site for the new building.

The Annenberg Foundation has contributed $350 million dollars to USC since its first donation in 1971 that started the Annenberg School.