Shady Side Academy middle school students have a new place to study. The Rockwell Middle School building opened on Tuesday morning.

It's been 16 months in the making. The Rockwell Middle School on the Shady Side Academy campus is one of the most up-to-date and technologically advanced schools in the Pittsburgh area.

The first thing you notice walking into the new facility is the layout. School administrators say it's bigger and better in many ways.

"So many schools are just double-barreled hallways with classrooms. This place is open," said Shady Side Academy President Bart Griffith.

"The largest class we had at Benedum [Hall] is smaller than the smallest classroom here," added Michelle Merson, head of the middle school.

Benedum Hall is the old middle school building, approximately a quarter of a mile away from the new location. According to school officials, the 240 middle school students will learn in the $26 million, nearly 50,000-square-foot building, and the new building being on campus is important.

"We gave a belief in one academy. We're saying there's an upper school campus, and we are placed side by side with the senior school," Merson said.

Officials told KDKA-TV that the private institution, which costs approximately $35,000 per year for middle school students, designed the building for groups to plan, learn, and grow together.

As to what's going to happen to the now-vacant Benedum Hall, it's now in the hands of the National Aviary.

"The Aviary is going to create a surgical center for birds, and it's going to be one of, I think, three in the country," Merson said. "It's going to be able to do specialty surgeries, and they're going to have a research, hatching area in the back. Lots of different stuff, it's going to be great," Merson said.