The CDI will house classrooms and laboratories for research in digital design.

Carol Strohecker, Director of the center says the center will use computer technologies including 3-D imaging and rapid prototyping to help develop new products. She said the project will serve as a visual reinforcement of the city’s growth beyond tobacco and manufacturing.

“It is a lot of computer technologies that the students are learning to use and people have been reading more and more about 3D printers I know, but they will see objects coming out of a printing machine that are made of plaster and that are made of plastic and we can do machine parts, we can do medical instruments, we can do furnishings, so a whole new concept of manufacturing and design and prototyping to help take us forward into the knowledge era,” said Strohecker.

Gayle Anderson, President and CEO of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, says the CDI has already been successful in helping some companies in the Triad.

“In our efforts to retain Well Fargo jobs in Winston-Salem, the city called upon CDI to create a three dimensional model of the Wells Fargo Stage Coach which we used to show those executives the kind of intellectual capital and capabilities that we have in this community,” said Anderson.

The CDI is currently located in Winston Tower on Main Street. The Center is a partnership between the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Winston-Salem State University, and Forsyth Technical Community College. The CDI was established in 2005 as a research center of the UNC system.

Donald Reaves, WSSU Chancellor said the project will help attract more young people to the area.

“The innovation and technology that will be going on in this center is a type of technology that we haven’t had in the past, and it will provide another approach or resource in teaching our students critical skills in the area of science and design,” said Reaves.

Winston-Salem based CJMW Architecture designed the nearly 27,000 square foot high-tech facility. It will be located in the Southern end of the research park.

Gary Green, President of Forsyth Tech, said the project is already helping spur more economic growth in the area.

“We are looking for land in the Piedmont Triad Research Park to have a training center for Forsyth Tech to train the kinds of technicians that we are going to need throughout the park. It would be complimentary the work that is being done at CDI that we would have some of our digital design technologies located in that facility as well as bio-tech, Nano-tech and some of the other parts of the knowledge economy that are going to drive the jobs in the park,” said Green.

A community open house and building design discussion was held Monday night in Winston Tower.

The new CDI facility is expected to be completed in fall 2013.