(Illustration by Emily Faith Morgan, University Communications)
While most students disperse for the summer, some activities speed up at the University of Virginia – especially construction and renovation projects.
In the coming weeks, on top of several ongoing construction and renovation projects, work crews will take advantage of the dearth of students for many projects on Grounds. Some of these projects will affect traffic patterns and reroute pedestrians.
Several ongoing construction projects are scheduled to be complete this year or next.
The new home of UVA’s Contemplative Sciences Center is designed to bring students and faculty from different schools and disciplines together, foster collaboration and experiment with new ways of teaching and learning. The 57,000-square-foot building, which should be completed in Spring 2024, includes studios of varying sizes for academic and co-curricular contemplative activities as well as research spaces for in-context research. The south wing of the building incorporates a rooftop bridge on the third level connecting to pedestrian bridges extending east across Emmet Street and west to the McCormick Road residence halls, creating a new ADA-approved connection from Newcomb Plaza to the west Grounds.
The renovation of the University's Alderman Library will bring the building to new levels of safety, accessibility and service, with modern amenities suited to the needs of its users.
The project, scheduled for completion in late 2023, will include a 130,000-square-foot addition on roughly the same footprint of the former “stacks” section of the building and renovates another 100,000 square feet of the historic building. The renovated library will include open shelving, study areas, reading rooms, staff work areas and spaces for scholarly research and preservation of books. The project will enhance circulation to central Grounds with a new entrance facing University Avenue.
The School of Data Science is the first academic building constructed in the Emmet-Ivy entrance corridor. The project – anticipated to be completed late this year – is a four-story, 60,000-square-foot building, with two 75-person classrooms, two 45-person classrooms, student study areas, faculty offices, research space and generous amounts of public, interactive space that stimulates creativity. There will also be an accessible terrace on the fourth floor with a green roof.
A project appending a new building, Shumway Hall, to the existing Cobb Hall is an expansion of the McIntire School of Commerce. A tunnel connecting Shumway to Rouss & Robertson halls is in place, with the Cobb Hall exterior restoration scheduled for completion this month.
The steel structure for Shumway will soon be underway, with “topping off” – installation of the highest girder – scheduled for November.
The new hotel and conference center is being developed on a parcel adjacent to the forthcoming Karsh Institute of Democracy building, west-southwest of the existing Emmet/Ivy Garage. It will serve as the hospitality anchor to a new Arts and Academic precinct, connecting the North Grounds and Athletics precincts with the Academical Village and Central Grounds.
The hostelry, scheduled to be completed in summer 2024, will feature 217 guest rooms (including suites), approximately 25,000 square feet of conference center space, a full-service restaurant, a café, outside terraces and a rooftop bar. The overall size of the new hotel is approximately 220,000 square feet.
McCormick Road, from the Physics Building to the intersection with Alderman Road, will be closed through Aug. 15 for utility installation and improved pedestrian access. The intersection of McCormick and Alderman roads will be closed for this work until around Aug. 15.
This accommodates two projects. One will extend underground utilities along and across McCormick Road to support the University’s low-temperature hot water infrastructure, needed to move the University away from using fossil fuel-generated steam and hot water to heat buildings. The second project is widening sidewalks on both sides of McCormick Road to support pedestrian safety and installing additional landscaping. The project also will narrow McCormick Road, improve the crosswalks and re-establish a western vehicle gate east of Hancock Drive.
The low-temperature hot water utility work also will close the sidewalk on the east side of Emmet Street between the pedestrian bridge and the entrance to the Central Grounds Parking garage. On Newcomb Road, several areas will be fenced off, including tunnel access entrances and a material storage area. Lane Road will be closed through Aug. 1 for utility changes at Medical Research Building 4, requiring traffic closures and modifications as well as parking space relocations.
Massie Road will be closed from June 12 to July 7 to accommodate work on the Football Operations Center, construction of which began in June 2022 and which, when complete, will house team locker rooms, meeting rooms, coaches’ offices, a weight room, a player lounge, training room, recovery room, sports science and technology and performance nutrition.
The Physics Building on McCormick Road is covered in scaffolding to support exterior building repairs and installing a new roof. There is a partial sidewalk closure on the east side of Bonnycastle Drive. Construction fencing will be erected along the sidewalk closure to contain the work along the west façade.
Workers will repair plaster ceilings in several East Lawn rooms, rebuild and repair concrete columns and the pergola on the west side of Old Cabell Hall, and continue restoration work on the Tuscan columns on the Lawn.
University News Associate Office of University Communications
mkelly@virginia.edu (434) 924-7291
December 22, 2024
