Miami University's new 230,000-square-foot student center opened its doors for the first time Monday, The Dayton Daily News reported.

The $46 million complex, located at the intersection of Spring Street and Maple Avenue, replaces the Shriver Center which had served as the welcome center and student gathering place on campus. The new center offers everything from new meeting rooms, to meditation centers to offices to breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert.

"It's nothing short of spectacular," David Hodge, the university's president, told The Dayton Daily News. "This has exceeded high expectations by a lot ... it's more interesting and beautiful than we could have imagined."

The center will be open 24 hours a day, and includes a theater, offices for student organizations, meeting/banquet rooms, six dining facilities with concepts ranging from Mexican to a 1950s diner, and a meditation center.

The new building was designed to meet Miami University's new energy efficiency standards, which requires approximately 35 percent less energy to heat and cool (per square foot). The new building achieved this with the installation of motion and CO2 sensors that adjust lighting and ventilation based on occupancy.

The ideas for the center came from students, Hodge said. The project got the official go-ahead in 2008. Two-thirds of the project was financed by more than 11,000 donors and friends who donated $32 million to date. Students financing the rest via a $115 per semester fee, the university said on its website.

"I'm so happy it's finally open. I'm a junior, I've been part of this project since my freshman year. To finally see it here is amazing," Cole Lyman, a member of the 17-student board that runs the center, told The Dayton Daily News.