Carnegie Mellon University said it hopes as early as mid-March to begin demolishing the first of four campus buildings to make room for the Gates Center for Computer Science.

Removal of the planetary robotics building, the west campus garages, the old student center and the campus printing building will help clear 5.6 acres for the $88 million project that includes a 150-space subsurface garage, spokeswoman Teresa Thomas said.

Funded in part by a $20 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the new center and west campus quadrangle are part of a plan to develop the west campus. The center, being designed by Atlanta-based Mack Scogin Merrill Elam architects, is tentatively slated to open in 2009.