There has been a building boom at the University of Virginia in the past several years and on June 7, the University of Virginia’s Buildings and Grounds Committee got an update on the major capital plan.
“We started last year in June with a $2.7 billion capital program,” said Colette Sheehy, the Senior Vice President for Operations and State Government Relations at UVA and oversees creation of the plan each year. “Over the course of the last 12 months we’ve finished $577 million worth of projects.”
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John Nau III is the chair of the Buildings and Grounds Committee and he shared details on projects that finished.
“Since we met last February, the Contemplative Commons and the School of Data Science projects have been completed,” Nau said.
Other completed projects are the football operations center, the two new residence halls of Ramazani House and Gaston House in the Brandon Avenue corridor, and the renovation of Alderman Library into the Shannon Library.
The total plan for the next year is smaller at $2.06 billion with a quarter of that in planning and a quarter wrapped up in projects that have not yet started.
“We’re still over a billion dollars in construction right now, over 50 percent of the program,” Sheehy said.
That plan continues to have $7 million set aside for an initiative to increase housing to provide beds for second-year students, a key component of the UVA Strategic Plan. UVA is seeking third-party firms to enter into a public-private partnership to build new residence halls.
“And we will be working through that process over the course of the summer and will have further reports and bring things back for approval by this committee and the Finance Committee into the fall,” Sheehy said.
Sheehy said the developers chosen may end up owning and operating the building depending on how the project is structured, but UVA will continue to own the land. The two sites under consideration are the eastern side of Emmet Street across from Massie Drive and a portion of the Emmet-Ivy Corridor.
One project that will be removed from the plan is a $60 million project to renovate Old Cabell Hall which Sheehy said won’t likely happen until another initiative in the planning stages is complete.
“We really need to construct the Center for the Arts which will house the music department which is currently in Old Cabell Hall,” Sheehy said. “So we really can’t do much in Old Cabell until we can move the music department.”
The panel approved the conceptual plan for the Center of the Arts which would be located on Emmet Street at the eastern end of the Emmet-Ivy Corridor. The project is still in the planning phases.
“The building will occupy an important and highly visible site in the corridor perpendicular to the new School of Data Science, providing a public face along Emmet Street and fronting the 20-foot wide pedestrian promenade in front of the stormwater pond,” said Alice Raucher, the University of Virginia Architect.
The entire project has a cost estimate of $315 million according to J.J. Wagner, the executive vice president and chief operating officer at UVA. So far, $50 million has been raised and UVA is seeking funding from the Commonwealth of Virginia to assist in the effort.
The plan also includes strategic studies such as a new Center for Entrepreneurship to be part of the Emmet-Ivy Corridor as well as a refresh of a 2019 study that looked at converting the fuel type for how heat is provided on Grounds.
“We’d really like to get off of burning coal,” Sheehy said.
One reason is to reduce emissions and another is that UVA is having a hard time procuring the kind of coal it needs.
Another issue for UVA is that they also use natural gas purchased from the City of Charlottesville. However, Sheehy said there are often capacity issues.
“On the coldest days of the winter, they will curtail the University and so we have to have a back-up fuel to produce the steam particularly that the hospital needs,” Sheehy said.
Other strategic studies include planning for the Grove Street properties and the Oak Lawn estate, two key areas of Fifeville.
Both the Buildings and Grounds Committee and the full Board of Visitors approved the updated Major Capital Plan, though Nau said he wants to see more information about how the Board can get more involved in the planning process.
The group also approved the schematic design for the North Grounds parking garage which will have 1,030 spaces to support events at the John Paul Jones Arena and competitions in the athletic precinct. This will be constructed in the northwest corner of the intersection of Massie Road and Copeley Road. The full design will come before them in September.
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