Museum annex is named in honor of Alice & Robert Jepson.

Delayed first by controversy and later by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the official groundbreaking for the Telfair Museum of Art's new building finally went off exactly according to script Oct. 15.

The event was largely ceremonial, complete with dignitaries digging into an oblong mound of dirt with shovels decorated by local artists such as Jack Leigh, Albert Seidl, Jerome Temple and Harry DeLorme.

However, it included the announcement of the building's name: the Jepson Center for the Arts, for Alice Jepson and Robert S. Jepson Jr.

Robert Jepson is one of the three chairs of the Telfair's campaign to raise $22 million for the project. He is chairman and CEO of Jepson Associates Inc., a private investment company in Savannah. He was previously chairman of Kuhlman Corp., a building materials supplier. The Jepsons also own Jepson Vineyards in northern California.

"We are humbled by this incredible gesture," Jepson told an invited crowd of about 200 people.

The superlatives flowed freely during the sunny 30-minute ceremony, held on the barren lot at Oglethorpe and Barnard streets where the Jepson Center for the Arts will soon begin to take shape. Diane Lesko, Telfair executive director, dubbed it "incredibly momentous."

Little mention was made of the controversy that surrounded development of the plans. Although no one has argued about the Telfair's need for a $22 million, 40,000-square-foot home for its 20th- and 21st-century artwork, the contemporary design -- by renowned architect Moshe Safdie -- was the subject of a bitter year-and-a-half battle.

Lesko acknowledged the controversy only in vague terms Monday, thanking the crowd "for your support, through thick and thin."

Safdie himself has gamely accepted the delays and expressed hope that they have resulted in a better building.

"You could liken the design process to wine making," he said during his turn at the podium. "You make the wine and then you let it age a little, and then you let it age a little more. Now here we are, five years later, and we sure hope it's good."

Originally scheduled for Sept. 13, the ceremony was postponed after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington two days earlier.

Construction is expected to take as much as two years.

Campaign co-chair John Cay announced that $20 million has already been raised and the public appeal for the remaining $2 million will begin around January.