A groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday for the new $85 million Emerson College satellite facility in Los Angeles.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, councilman Eric Garcetti, Emerson College president Lee Pelton, Emerson alum Henry Winkler, and architect Thom Mayne were on hand. The 10-story building is expected to be completed in 2014.

“Today, we celebrate the first steps toward what will be an ambitious new endeavor that will further benefit our students, the fields we serve and the city of Los Angeles itself,” Pelton told the audience, per The Boston Globe. “In doing so, we extend Emerson’s distinctive curricular footprint across the entire continent, from the shores of one ocean to the shores of another.”

Photo Credit: Ed Menezes