Construction has started at the site of Memorial University's new core science building on the St. John's campus.

Artists renderings and a 3-D model were posted Wednesday to show the public what the new structure will look like.

Gordon Stratford, senior vice president and design principal at HOK Canada, said the building will enable Memorial to compete globally as a top destination for students and researchers.

"What you're doing is designing a building for the world because when students make a choice or researchers make a choice in terms of where to go, they have the world to choose from, so for us we're really thinking about this building in a global sense," said Stratford.

"Memorial has a very unique program and Newfoundland and St. John's are unique places and if we can combine those two things together, then we've got a building that's going to be a place of choice."

Stratford said the building itself was inspired by the icebergs that frequent the province's coastlines, and will have two atriums — the shoreline atrium and the whale atrium.

The skeleton of one of the blue whales that beached on Newfoundland's west coast last year will be on display in the whale atrium.

Stratford added that within the building's 425,000 square feet, 125,000 square feet will be potential partner space, so researchers and professionals will co-exist with students in the building.

Check out the preview and plans for the new building in the video player.