ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9607010118
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-18 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
Cranes stretch over a new engineering classroom and laboratory building going up on Stanger Street while bulldozers dig a crater behind flagship Burruss Hall, where a plaza once stood. It will stand again - after a new architecture building is installed underground.
"The idea is to keep the plaza as urban space but make the facility underneath. This space actually will have more sunlight than many of the buildings on campus," said Robert Dunay, associate dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies.
Primarily, the building will be studio space to relieve students who now are "packed in quite tight ... this will allow students a little more flexibility in terms of doing larger projects," Dunay said.
The two buildings are among the last for Tech to come from a $472 million higher education state bond package approved by voters in 1992. The pair of buildings received $17.4 million.
In addition to the class buildings, Tech is constructing new sports fields adjacent to Lane Stadium. It has closed Spring Road, which bisects that section of the campus, during the construction. Included is a women's softball field that helps Tech meet its legal obligations under the federal Title IX sex discrimination laws.
Sky bridge among
new projects
Perhaps the most high-profile buildings remain on the drawing board.
Ground will be broken this year for a student health-fitness center that will boast a pool, stair-stepping machines, weights and all the other fitness and weight-reduction apparatus found in a good health club. The university's health services will be there, too. The building is slated for construction near Washington Street in easy walking distance of the dormitory district.
Also, faculty from a range of disciplines are meeting now to help architects design the dull-sounding but revolutionary Advanced Communication and Information Technology Center. Movable walls inside will shift with technology's rapid changes, while the facade will reflect the limestone towers of Burruss Hall. The new building, scheduled for construction next year on the north corner of The Mall across from Newman Library, will be linked to the library by a sky bridge arching above the road itself. The window-lined bridge, designed to frame the War Memorial, will be a reading room that can hold upwards of 200 people.
Construction boom
Why the boom, and why now?
"A lot of pent-up demand," says Ray Smoot, Tech's treasurer and vice president for finance. "We have not had significant capital outlay appropriations for the last six years.
"If you look at the state's space guidelines based on enrollment ... Tech has had the largest deficit of any of the state's colleges and universities. This is beginning to address that."
Tech is expected to grow by about 1,000 students - to 25,000 - by 2005. Based on this projection, Tech's academic space needs are likely to be rivaled only by George Mason University in Fairfax, James Madison University in Harrisonburg, and the state's 23 community colleges, said Don Finley, financial expert at the State Council of Higher Education.
New life for old dorms
To save money and create office space, the university several years ago decided to renovate the historic home of the Corps of Cadets, known as the Upper Quad, to offices. Dormitory students, meantime, will move to quarters in new buildings to be constructed on the other side of campus amidst a cluster of existing dorms.
"It's more feasible to do that, because residence halls are ... paid back with room fees, and new academic buildings [have to be] built from state money," said Ed Spencer, director of dormitory and dining services.
Administrators say they're not adding dorm rooms - although they may consider a new dormitory later this year - just swapping old dorms for new.
By building dorms with student fees, students get more modern dormitories than the Spartan rooms left over from Tech's all-male military days. And the school doesn't have to ask the state for new money for classroom and academic space.
Since the first two Upper-Quad buildings were converted in recent years, however, new plans to boost the corps to 1,000 strong by 2000 have intervened. The growth of the corps means now the university is re-examining which two upper-quad dorms will be converted next, Smoot said. But the 442 dorm beds in two buildings that will be constructed across campus next year will simply replace beds taken from the Upper Quad.
The new suite dorms should be quite the departure from the two-to-a-room digs with gang showers in the old dorms, Spencer said.
Three double rooms will be designed around one bathroom, all with carpeting, air-conditioning and nearby study space, he said.
The new dorms will be built on what's left of the old "Pritchard Prairie," next to the dorm of the same name. But Spencer said the university intends to retain the basketball and volleyball courts in the area.
Coming along soon after the dorms are built: an addition to the Cochrane Hall dining hall, so that all the new students living in that corner of campus can eat nearby, too.
New sports facilities
The other big change coming to the campus is in athletic facilities - as anyone can tell who's tried to turn onto Spring Road from Southgate Drive. The road is closed during construction of several sports projects but will reopen in the future, Smoot said.
Meanwhile, the bulldozers are busy. Under construction there, at a cost of more than $6 million, are:
Women's softball fields. Tech sports spokesman Jack Williams says plans for a women's softball team were on the drawing board - even before a Title IX lawsuit prompted the formation of a women's varsity team. Now, fields are being built for $520,000.
Cassell Coliseum roof. Remember all that ice and snow that forced relocation of two men's basketball games last winter? The coliseum roof problems are being repaired. A 27-year-old worker, Dewey Wayne Duncan, fell to his death Thursday when he stepped onto a section of the roof covered by only a ceiling tile. Officials from the state Department of Labor and Industry are investigating the accident.
English Field will get a press box for $488,000.
Lane Stadium is reinforcing its seats, with construction starting soon.
Rector Field House is getting new artificial turf in late summer.
Tech lost its outdoor track 14 years ago, and now a new one is going in. The infield will be a soccer field. Much of the $1.89 million project is being paid for by donations, Smoot said.
Apart from these projects is an $8 million boost to the sports program - a new building adjacent to The Jamerson Center for student athletes. Look for an auditorium, weightlifting and conditioning gym, academic center and sports medicine complex. It will be a two-story building.
Finally, across campus, look for continued work at the Donaldson Brown Hotel & Conference Center, where rooms will be getting face lifts starting this winter.
LENGTH: Long : 158 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. 1. The new engineering building underby CNBcontruction next to Whittermore Hall is part of a $150 million-plus
construction campaign under way at Virginia Tech (Ran on NRV-1). 2.
Spring Road in front of Lane Stadium is closed, with the adjoining
land being worked over for a track and soccer complex and a women's
softball field. 3. The plaza between Cowgill and Burruss Hall soon
will be the site of a new Architecture Department building. 4.
Tech's new engineering building under construction at what was once
a parking lot for Whittermore Hall (right) between Perry and Barger
streets. The 108,000-square foot building, which will house house
classrooms and research labs, is scheduled to be completed in the
spring of 1997. color. GRAPHIC: 1. Ground is scheduled to be broken
this fall for the new Virginia Tech Athletic facility addition
(above), to be built between Cassell Coliseum and Lane Stadium. 2. A
window-lined skybridge (below) will connect the Advanced
Communication and Information Technology Center and Newman Library.
The skybridge over the mall will frame the War Memorial. Map. color.
Chart: Going up at Virginia Tech. KEYWORDS: MGR