Plans will be drawn up to use the ground floor of the Gateway Building for Career and Technical Education students.
The County Commission on Wednesday approved the selection of architect Tinker Ma to design the reuse of part of the Golden Gateway building.
County Mayor Weston Wamp said the space includes from 40,000 to 50,000 square feet.
He said it will be designed in line with continuing changing needs in CTE with the architect during the design process.
The county mayor said there is renewed interest in technical education at the Harrison Bay and Sequoyah schools at the Career Education Academy.
Justin Witt of the county schools said school officials will be working with the architect.
There was an earlier proposal for the Center for Creative Arts to move to the site from its Dallas Road campus, but that was withdrawn.
The county purchased the spacious building that dates back to Urban Renewal days of Cameron Hill from BlueCross for $10 million.