UVA Center of Arts to join Emmet Ivy Corridor after approval of schematic design

If a time traveler from 2015 were to suddenly end up at the corner of Emmet Street and Ivy Road in Charlottesville in 2025, they’d be amazed at the number of transformations. Gone are several buildings including the Cavalier Inn.

After years of property acquisition by the University of Virginia Foundation and planning from the UVA Office of the Architect, there’s one new completed building for the School of Data Science and plenty more coming out of the ground at what’s known as the Emmet Ivy corridor. The Board of Visitors adopted a master plan in 2016.

John Nau, the chair of the Buildings and Grounds Committee, made this remark at the opening of the September 11 meeting.

“I would hope that in the near future, each member of Buildings and Grounds gets the opportunity to drive the way I did and see the amount of work underway,” Nau said. “You know, it kind of reminds me of a town in Texas that’s coming out of the ground from dirt to a city in a couple of years.”

Construction is underway on the Karsh Institute of Democracy, the Virginia Guesthouse, and new residence halls.

At their meeting, the committee also signed off on the location for a second building to support the School of Data Science. But the main item was a further review of the design for the proposed Center of the Arts.

“In June of 2024, the BOV approved the site for the new center for the Arts, which will be home to the Tessa and Richard Ader Performing Arts Center, the Fralin Art Museum, the the Kluge Ruhe Gallery and the College’s Department of Music,” said Alice Raucher, the UVA Architect.

At previous meetings, Nau expressed concern about the scale of the project but at the September 2025 meeting he said he was satisfied with the progress.

“There’s been a lot of work,” Nau said. “I want to thank Alice and her team because I think this now does reflect the University style. It’s a little bit different than the lawn, but it works.”

The Committee voted unanimously to approve the schematic design and to approve another $5 million to help further refine the drawings.

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