The University of Virginia is moving ahead with construction of the Emmet-Ivy Corridor and different committees of the Board of Visitors took action at their meeting in early December.
In addition to resolutions of support from the Buildings and Grounds Committee, the Finance Committee was asked on December 6, 2024, to support the North Grounds Parking Garage as well as three new student housing buildings to be constructed on Copeley Road. They took up the garage first.
“The estimated total project cost is $50 million,” said J.J. Davis, UVA’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. “It’ll be funded by debt of $24.6 million, institutional funds of $18.2 million and parking and transportation reserves at $7.2 [million].”
The student housing projects would include between 750 to 800 beds in apartment style housing that Davis said would have a cost between $150 million and $160 million.
“We will not have a final number yet because it is still going through design iteration,” Davis said.
It’s also not known whether second-year students who live on Grounds will be allowed to use any spaces in the nearby Emmet/Ivy parking garage. Davis said students can use Charlottesville Area Transit to get around the city.
“The first year I worked here, I actually took the bus down to Barracks Road to get my groceries,” Davis said.
Later in the day on December 6, the full Board of Visitors ratified the actions.
On the day before, the UVA Buildings and Grounds Committee had reviewed the projects as well as the Center for Arts proposed for the northeast corner of the Emmet Ivy Corridor. You can read more on that in my article in the December 11, 2024 edition of C-Ville Weekly.
The Virginia Guesthouse hotel and convention center is expected to open in the fall of 2025.
One member of the Buildings and Grounds Committee wanted to know how the programs would retain the sense of the University of Virginia as a village, pointing out that Emmet and Ivy are both very busy roads.
Alice Raucher, the UVA Architect, said there will be eight foot wide sidewalks on Ivy Road as well as dedicated bike lanes that are not currently there. She said other infrastructure projects will change the character of the space.
“The city’s Smart Scale project, which we hope will be beginning shortly, will improve the intersection at Emmett and Ivy Road and create a… 10 foot wide multimodal path that goes along Emmett street all the way up to Arlington Boulevard,” Raucher said.
Raucher said there is a potential to create a pedestrian bridge across Emmet Street in the future to connect the Center for Arts with Culbreth Road to take advantage of the parking garage that serves the School of Architecture. UVA has contributed $2.5 million to the Smart Scale project.
President Jim Ryan said he could anticipate there being a need for a bridge when the Emmet Ivy Corridor is fully built out.
“Right now there are a lot of students going back and forth to get to the School of Data Science already, and that’s manageable,” Ryan said. “But when you add 750 students living there and then when you have these other buildings, I think we’re going to come to the conclusion that we need a bridge.”
Stay tuned!
Before you go: The time to write and research of this article is covered by paid subscribers to Charlottesville Community Engagement. In fact, this particular installment is from the December 9, 2024 edition of the newsletter. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon. There will be new options in 2025 if you’d like to wait. Just please know I’m glad you’re reading!
Discover more from Information Charlottesville
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
