While most students have dispersed for the summer, some activities speed up at the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville — especially construction and renovation projects.
In the coming weeks, on top of several ongoing building projects, crews will take advantage of students enjoying their summer break by working on several job sites at the picturesque campus.
According to a university news release on June 6, several of the construction projects are slated to be complete either this year or in 2024.
Contemplative Sciences Center
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-sq.-ft. building, which should be finished in the fall, 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 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-approved connection from Newcomb Plaza to the west grounds.
Alderman Library Renovation
The renovation of UVA'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, set for completion in late 2023, will include a 130,000-sq.-ft. addition on roughly the same footprint as the former "stacks" section of the repository, and renovates another 100,000 sq. ft. of the historic building. The library's upgrade also will create open shelving, along with new study areas, reading rooms, staff work areas and spaces for scholarly research and book preservation.
UVA Today noted that the project will enhance circulation to the school's Central Grounds with a new entrance facing University Avenue.
School of Data Science
The university's School of Data Science is the first academic building constructed in the Emmet-Ivy entrance corridor.
The project — anticipated to be wrapped up late this year — is a four-story, 60,000-sq.-ft. structure, and will house two 75-person classrooms, another pair of 45-person classrooms, plus student study areas, faculty offices, research space and generous amounts of public, interactive space designed to stimulate creativity. Additionally, there also will be an accessible terrace on the fourth floor with a green roof.
Cobb/Shumway Halls
A project to append a new building, Shumway Hall, to the existing Cobb Hall, is an expansion of the McIntire School of Commerce. A tunnel connecting Shumway to UVA's Rouss & Robertson halls is already in place, with the Cobb Hall exterior restoration scheduled for completion later in June.
The construction of the steel structure for Shumway will soon be under way, with its topping off — the installation of the highest girder — scheduled for November.
UVA Guesthouse Hotel and Conference Center
The venerable Virginia university also is developing a new hotel and conference center 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 at UVA, connecting the North Grounds and Athletics precincts with the Academical Village and Central Grounds.
The hostelry, scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2024, will feature 217 guest rooms, including suites, as well as approximately 25,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, a full-service restaurant, café, outside terraces, and a rooftop bar.
The overall size of the new hotel is around 220,000 sq. ft., according to UVA Today.
McCormick Road Utility Work
Charlottesville's McCormick Road, from the UVA Physics Building to the intersection with Alderman Road, will be closed through Aug. 15 for utility installation and improved pedestrian access. The intersection itself also will be shut down until then.
The closures will accommodate two projects:
One will extend the underground utilities along and across McCormick Road to support the university's low-temperature hot water infrastructure, needed to move the school away from using fossil fuel-generated steam and hot water to heat campus buildings.
The second project will be the widening of sidewalks on both sides of McCormick Road to support pedestrian safety, and for the installation of more landscaping. Crews also will narrow McCormick Road, improve the crosswalks and reestablish a western vehicle gate east of Hancock Drive.
Other UVA Utility Work Also Planned
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 are due to be fenced off, including tunnel access entrances and a material storage area. Additionally, Lane Road will be closed through Aug. 1 for utility changes at Medical Research Building 4, which will require traffic closures and modifications as well as parking space relocations.
Football Operations Center
Massie Road will be shut down from June 12 to July 7 to accommodate work on the UVA Cavaliers' Football Operations Center, where construction was started last June. When it is complete, the facility will house team locker rooms, meeting rooms and coaches' offices, plus a weight room, player lounge, training room, recovery room and space for a sports science and technology center.
Physics Building
Already, the Physics Building on McCormick Road is covered in scaffolding to support exterior building repairs and the installation of a new roof. There also is a partial sidewalk closure on the east side of Bonnycastle Drive. Construction fencing will soon be erected along the sidewalk closure to contain the work along the west façade.
Academical Village
Workers are scheduled to 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 at UVA.
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