On February 7th, over 275 community members, partners and friends joined Virginia Tech and Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. to celebrate the next milestone at the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus with the opening ceremony. The event included an event on the ground floor of the construction site of the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus and a ceremony to lift steel beams to its highest point, the 11th floor of the One Academic Building.
“This is a big moment for Virginia Tech and symbolizes the tremendous progress we’ve made on our campus innovation and academic programming,” said Tim Sands, president of Virginia Tech. “The campus of innovation will be an important source of technical talent for the greater Washington region and will be critical to Virginia Tech’s growing presence in the region. I look forward to 2024 as we welcome students, faculty, and the community to campus. “Extraordinary Building”
Traditionally, a flat roof occurs when the last beams of the building’s main structure are installed. The 37-foot beam has been signed by hundreds of builders, as well as alumni, university leaders, educators, community supporters, and partners involved in the project. It was later fixed on the northeast side of the top floor of the building.
Tuesday’s ceremony gave Virginia Tech and Whiting-Turner the opportunity to honor the project’s contributors. The program took place in a 355-seat auditorium that would eventually become the Innovation Campus and was moderated by Sands, Innovation Campus Vice President and CEO Lance Collins, University Architect Lisa Morris, Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson, Whiting-Turner Project Manager Summer Cleary. Bailey Edelson of JBG SMITH and Sanju Bansal, Chairman of the Innovation Campus Advisory Board spoke.
“We’re building a tech community that’s perfect for connecting talented students to Northern Virginia’s growing tech ecosystem,” said Collins. “Details matter in this process, and I’m grateful for being a part of our campus so far. who planned, designed and built.
The Virginia Tech Innovation Campus was grounded in September 2021, with construction scheduled to open in fall 2024. The construction project included excavating two levels underground to create an underground garage and constructing an 11-story, 300,000-square-foot steel structure. Over the past 18 months, more than 1,150 workers have contributed to the project. they have:
“I am extremely proud of the hard work, dedication and precision of every employee and subcontractor who helped with this project,” said Cleary, a Virginia Tech alum who is leading the first project at her alma mater. “The building is unique and we are all thrilled to see the next phase of construction come to life.”
The 3.5-acre Virginia Tech campus is part of the first phase of JBG SMITH’s new mixed-use development and innovation district at North Potomac Yards, near the future Potomac Yards-VT metro station. The design of the building focuses on the principles of sustainability, health and wellness, green and social spaces, accessibility, connectivity, flexibility and integrated technologies.
The steel structure of the building has been completed and its distinctive gem-shaped character is clearly visible. One academic building designed by the SmithGroup reflects the art and science of engineering and technology, with multiple angles that maximize solar capture to power the building. Each floor from the first to the seventh is approximately 35,000 square feet, while the last three floors are approximately 12,000 square feet each.
Since Collins’ hiring in 2020, campus leadership has focused on expanding admissions and enrollment management functions, identifying future academic programs and research directions, and hiring the best faculty, with the first to join campus in August 2022.
Today, Northern Virginia has about 300 Masters of Innovation campus specializing in computer science and computing. Registration for Spring 2023 will close at the end of February. With the addition of the Boeing Graduate Scholars Program, among other scholarships, the campus continues to increase access to advanced computer science and computer engineering education for historically underrepresented students.
After full expansion, the Innovation Park will annually host about 750 undergraduates and 200 doctoral students, as well as 550 undergraduates and 50 doctoral students.
The university expects to welcome students, faculty and staff to the completed building in the fall of 2024. The students currently live on the Falls Church campus. Plans for the future of the Innovative Campus include the construction of two additional campus buildings, each approximately 150,000 square feet, as the campus grows. Check out more visualizations and a virtual tour of our campus and building pages.
Virginia Tech is demonstrating its impact as a global land grant, promoting sustainable development in our communities across the Commonwealth of Virginia and around the world.