Virginia’s largest undergraduate university reached a milestone Tuesday in its effort to establish a technology-focused graduate campus in Northern Virginia.
Virginia Tech officials raised a steel beam to the 11th floor of a 300,000-square-foot building in Alexandria that will be the anchor of the school’s new Innovation Campus.
The campus is part of a major redevelopment of the Northern Virginia corridor around Reagan National Airport that will feature Amazon’s new headquarters complex on the north end and Tech’s new graduate campus on the south.
Plans for the campus were announced in 2018 to coincide with Amazon’s selection of Northern Virginia for its second headquarters, dubbed HQ2. In fact, Amazon cited the Innovation Campus as one of the main reasons it chose to locate in Northern Virginia.
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At ceremonies marking the completion of construction Tuesday, Innovation Campus CEO Lance Collins called it a “symbolic midpoint of the project.”
The university expects the building to open in time for the fall 2024 semester. Eventually, three buildings totaling 600,000 square feet are expected to be completed by 2030 at a cost of more than $1 billion. The campus will serve more than 750 graduate students, the majority in computer science and engineering programs.
The gem-shaped building is designed to maximize light exposure from the solar cells that will supplement the building’s energy needs. Its foundation is constructed of the university’s signature Hokie stone, the material that dominates the landscape at Tech’s flagship campus in Blacksburg, in southwestern Virginia.
Construction of a 300,000 square foot building is shown on February 7, 2023 in Alexandria, Virginia. Virginia Tech University reached a milestone in building the new technology-focused campus in Northern Virginia. (AP Photo/Matthew Barakat)
University architect Liza Morris said the stone on the Innovation Campus is implemented in “a more custom aesthetic that will complement this urban setting.”
Virginia Tech sees the campus as a way to strengthen its presence in Northern Virginia and connect directly with the high-tech companies that are increasingly making the area their home. Speakers at the event emphasized the need for high-tech workers, saying Tech will be able to produce skilled graduates to help meet demand.
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“It’s really a transformation of this area into something quite extraordinary for the country,” Collins said.
Boeing, which recently moved its corporate headquarters to Northern Virginia, is the biggest supporter of the campus and will sponsor a Boeing Center for the Transition of Veterans and Military Families at the site.
Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands said Tech’s “presence here in Virginia in this growing global technology hub and our proximity to the nation’s capital are truly essential as we pursue our aspirations to become one of the top 100 best global research universities.
Technology administrators said they believe the campus will also help diversify a profession that has long been dominated by white men. Collins said about 300 students are currently enrolled in the program at a temporary location in nearby Falls Church and that 29% of students are female and 17% are underrepresented minorities, which he said is higher than average. . He expects those numbers to grow as the campus matures.
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“If you get more voices, more diversity at the table, you operate at a higher level,” he said.
At the other end of the corridor, Amazon has said it has hired more than 5,000 of the 25,000 people it hopes to bring to Northern Virginia this decade, and plans to open the first phase of its development, Metropolitan Park, this summer.
