Simpson Strong-Tie, a large supplier of structural building products, is donating $500,000 to help pay for a laboratory in a new building for Cal Poly's Construction Management Department.

The Simpson Strong-Tie Materials Demonstration Laboratory will be the largest element in the Center for Construction Excellence.

Students in several disciplines will be able to use the 5,000-square-foot lab to design, build and test structural components. It will also provide support for activities of four adjoining labs in the center, where students will gain hands-on experience with fundamentals of construction management and residential, commercial and heavy/civil construction.

The donation is part of the Cal Poly College of Architecture and Environmental Design's campaign to raise $7.5 million in private gifts to help fund the new building. The college will receive $17 million in state funds for the project. Groundbreaking is scheduled for 2005, with completion in the fall of 2007.

The company, which has an office, factory and training center in Brea, employs several Cal Poly graduates and has contributed supplies and training to students at the university for many years.

"Simpson Strong-Tie is committed to education and advancing the construction of safe, cost-effective structures for our communities," said Dave Bastian, branch manager of Simpson Strong-Tie's Brea facilities.

Cal Poly Construction Management Department chairman Allan Hauck said the lab would allow students to simulate projects from the construction of roads to structural seismic strengthening to protect homes and buildings from earthquakes and high winds.

R. Thomas Jones, dean of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, said the company has been donating teaching tools to the Architectural Engineering Department for 20 years and has helped sponsor the annual student-run Structural Engineers Association of California Structural Forum for the past eight years.

This year's Simpson Strong-Tie Symposium, which is open to the public, is being held Friday and Saturday. Call 756-1314 for more information.