MADRID—Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who turns 100 on Saturday, has designed a center in Spain that will be shared by seven of the world's greatest cultural institutions, the Agence France-Presse reports.

Representatives of London's Barbican Center, Paris's Centre Pompidou, New York's Lincoln Center, the Sydney Opera House, Egypt's Alexandria Library, the Tokyo International Forum, and the Hong Kong Cultural Center will gather in Aviles for two days starting Friday to discuss the $45 million Niemeyer Cultural Center.

British physicist Stephen Hawking, Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf, director Woody Allen, and Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho will act as artistic advisers to the center, construction of which will start in the small northwestern city of Aviles in March and is expected to last two years.

"Niemeyer...has said it is the project which he has the most fondness and affection for," the subdirector of the center, Joan Picanyol, told AFP. "He insists that he will come here when the first stone is laid, but we don't know if his doctors will allow it."

The building, seen as Niemeyer's last great challenge, will feature the curves from his most famous works and will hold a 1,000-seat auditorium, a 43,000 square-foot gallery, a multiplex cinema, and an observatory tower.

"We don't have a theme which we will specialize in, we don't have a permanent fund works. We want to be an absolutely multidisciplinary center," said Picanyol.

Local officials hope the center will revive Aviles as the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim museum did Bilbao.