Buildings and Grounds panel to consider new names, additions to UVA’s major capital plan

The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors is in town again this week and on Thursday the subcommittee charged with the built environment will be meeting.

The Buildings and Grounds Committee will meet beginning at 2:30 p.m. in the Board Room of the Rotunda.

The main item on the agenda will be two additions to UVA’s Major Capital Plan.

“The Buildings and Grounds Committee determines whether a project should be added to the Major Capital Plan, and the Finance Committee evaluates whether there is a sound financing plan to pay for the estimated project cost and additional operating costs expected once a project is complete,” reads the staff report.

This time around the request is to add a $5.9 million expansion of the Mail Order and Specialty Pharmacy. The existing facility is at capacity. There’s also a $2 million request for planning and design for a Clinical Lab at Town Center IV at the North Fork Discovery Park. .

Several items are also being requested to be added to the Capital Plan. There are for:

• Main Heat Plant Fuel Conversion – $38 million (learn more)
• The Park Renovation – $8 million (learn more)
• Millmont Renovation: Transportation Administrative and Bus Service Facility – $10 million (learn more)
• Research Data Center – $72 million (learn more)
• Darden Faculty Office Building Renovation – $20 million (learn more)
• School of Data Science and Entrepreneurship Building – $77 million (learn more)
• Lannigan Track and Field Renovation – $7 million (learn more)

There are also two studies that are being requested to be added. One is for the reconfiguration of multiple buildings used by the College of Arts and Sciences and the other is for Warner Hall.

There will also be an update on the main capital projects under construction at the Fontaine Research Park. That information is not available in the packet.

Namings

There will also be a request to approve the names of items in four areas:

There will be a new central spine road at the Fontaine Research Park, which currently has two roads known as Ray C. Hunt Drive and Natural Resources Drives. As part of a reorganization of the traffic network, UVA is proposing one road be known as Guerrant Drive and the other will be known as Hetherington Drive.

Dr. Richard Guerrant is the founding director of UVA’s Center for Global Health Equity.

There are also proposed new names for the road network on central Grounds. What has been called Whitehead Road between Alderman Road and Stadium Road would be renamed “Carl Smith Way” to honor a man who made a $25 million donation in 1997 to support renovation at Scott Stadium.

Dr. Richard Whitehead served as Dean of the Medical Faculty from 1905 to 1916.

“To continue memorializing Dr. Whitehead’s extraordinary contributions to UVA and to medical education more broadly, the University requests the Board’s approval to rename Chemistry Drive,” reads the staff report.

Next up will be a renaming of an athletic facility slated to open in the fall of 2025. The new Olympic sports center will be named for the Harrison family.

“The Harrison family has been longtime, generous supporters of the University, beginning with Marjorie Harrison Webb’s father and mother, David and Mary Harrison,” reads the staff report. “David Harrison earned a bachelor’s degree from the University in 1939 and a law degree from UVA in 1941.”

The Olympic facility will support student-athletes competing in 27 varsity sports.

Finally in renamings, one spot at the Virginia Tennis Complex at the Boar’s Head Sports Club will be known as the Jeffrey Cudlip Memorial Court. Cudlip was a 1990 graduate of UVA who has since passed on. He was the son of Frances Dickenson and Charles Cudlip.

Before you go: No one else covers the University of Virginia’s land use activities nearly as thoroughly as me. In fact, sometimes it feels like no one else is paying attention at all. Thankfully there is the Cavalier Daily and I am grateful for their work! In any case, this went out in the March 5, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. Subscribe to see if I am able to follow up!