Select Your Search Criteria

VT Web VT People

Enter your search here

• Virginia Tech Home
• Alumni Association

Building a Better Research University

Virginia Tech's master plan calls for construction of nearly a million square feet in research space.

Article reprinted from October 8, 2006 edition of the Roanoke Times
Story by Greg Esposito -- Photos by Alan Kim -

Virginia Tech announced a goal this year to reach $540 million in research expenditures by 2012, essentially doubling the amount of research by the university over an eight-year period.

For plans that big, you need big buildings.

So Virginia Tech's 2006 Campus Master Plan proposes 2.9 million square feet in construction over the next 10 years. More than a million square feet of that space will be specifically designed for research -- an increase of 114 percent.

Brad Fenwick, Tech's vice president for research, said there's a threshold for how much research can be done in a given amount of space, and Tech has been right up against it for a while. He described the correlation between research and research buildings as a kind of chicken-and-egg dynamic.

"Of course you have to have the caliber research and the type of faculty to justify the construction," he said. "And you have to have the space to attract the faculty and to put the equipment in and do the research."

Fenwick's office keeps track of research per square foot done on campus, and Tech's colleges have been forced to become more efficient with the space they have. The engineering college, for instance, has increased from $100 to $120 of research per square foot in the past three years.

Campus construction, particularly at research universities, boomed about five years ago. But because of state budget cuts, Virginia Tech didn't grow with many of its competitors, Fenwick said.

"Even with the new space we're bringing on board, we'll still have a significant deficit," he said.

Tim Pickering, centers and institutes coordinator in Fenwick's office, said according to guidelines created by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, Tech should have at least 1.4 million square feet of laboratory space on campus. It has about 770,000 square feet.

But new research-focused buildings such as a 31,600-square-foot building construction lab near Cowgill Hall, and the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science building, a 98,000-square-foot project off Stanger Street, will bring more people to campus as well and the university will have to deal with the parking and traffic congestion problems that will come with it.

Transportation is always an issue when the town and university discuss their plans with each other, said Blacksburg Town Manager Marc Verniel.

"The question is, ‘How do you move these people to and from campus and prevent congestion?' " he said.

Verniel said the town and university regularly discuss their plans for development. The town will unveil its revised comprehensive plan next year.

The university and the town point at Blacksburg Transit as an example of cooperation. Funded by federal grant money brought in by the town and student fees, the program has been shuttling people -- mostly students -- around Blacksburg since 1983.

The master plan calls for a transit center in the commuter lot behind Burruss Hall. This could become a hub not just for Blacksburg Transit but other modes of transportation, such as Greyhound or the Smart Way bus, said Kurt Krause, Tech's (former) vice president for business affairs. The university would manage and maintain the center if the town can get the grant money for the project.

Another item in the master plan that interested town officials was a performing arts center Tech plans to build.

Before the university decided on a location, the town made clear its preference to have it close to downtown. They got their wish. The 67,000-square-foot building will be on the Prices Fork side of Alumni Mall, across Main Street from Blacksburg Baptist Church.

One idea in the plan to manage traffic congestion around the university would add an interchange on U.S. 460 between Main Street and Southgate Drive.

Airport expansion plans will force the university to move Tech Center Drive. Krause said if that road is connected to Duck Pond Drive and extended to Main Street, that would cut down on traffic in Blacksburg's Hubbard Street neighborhood.

But those plans are far from set in stone. Road extensions and interchanges are contingent on many factors, such as the town's ability to draw federal transportation funding, Krause said.

The university makes a major revision of the campus master plan about once a decade, but it's constantly being changed, said Krause, looking at a map of campus according to the 1994 master plan.

"Here's McComas Hall; that's happened. Career services, student services, Harper Hall -- not quite in that configuration -- but has happened ... Stanger Street garage? Nah. Mall residence halls? Haven't done those."
But despite all of the changes to the plan, the final square footage of construction was close to the original estimates in the 1994 plan. Krause expects most of the projects in this plan to be realized. "This isn't all pipe dream," he said.

So much of the plan isn't a pipe dream that the university began construction last month of a surge building near the intersection of Prices Fork Road and Turner Street. The purpose of the 40,000-square-foot building is to provide space for departments to relocate during renovations. The college of architecture will move into the building in 2007.

The campus has 14,300 parking spaces for 20,150 registered vehicles, according to Steve Mouras, Tech's director of transportation. His goal is to maintain that ratio as the campus changes over the next decade. He anticipates the number of spaces will fluctuate between 13,000 and 15,000 as parking lots are taken over by buildings and grass and parking structures are built.

Those spots will be needed if much of the plan comes to fruition. While Krause doesn't know how much of the plan will be reality, he knows nothing is built if it isn't planned first.

"Without the plan, without the aspirations, without something to show donors or researchers or people who have grants available to give, you're not going to get it," he said. "At least now we have a land use, we know how to make it fit."

---

College Construction

Costs for completed construction projects on campuses across
the nation have doubled in the past six years.

• 1995 $6.1 billion
• 1996 $6.3 billion
• 1997 $5.8 billion
• 1998 $6.3 billion
• 1999 $6.8 billion
• 2000 $7.3 billion
• 2001 $9.8 billion
• 2002 $11 billion
• 2003 $11 billion
• 2004 $13.7 billion
• 2005 $14.5 billion
• 2006 $14.3 billion (projected)

SOURCE: School planning and management magazine 2006 college construction report