What’s being built? A roundup of campus construction projects at VCU

By Brian McNeill

New and returning students may have noticed several construction, renovation and restoration projects underway at Virginia Commonwealth University this fall. More projects - including a new residence hall - are being planned.

VCU News recently checked in on these projects, all of which are designed to support the needs of students, faculty, staff and the community in alignment with the One VCU Master Plan and VCU's strategic plan - Quest 2028: One VCU Together We Transform.

"The One VCU Master Plan focuses first and foremost on the success and experiences of VCU's students and patients, as well as places a strong emphasis on safety, mobility and synergies among academic programs, research and health care," said Meredith Weiss, Ph.D., senior vice president for finance and administration and chief financial officer. "These guiding principles inform and prioritize where and how we make physical campus investments."

Notably, VCU has a long history of completing campus construction projects on time and under budget. Construction of new buildings in recent years - such as the STEM building, the College of Health Professions, the College of Engineering Research Building, the Technology Operations Center and the Raleigh Building renovation - returned a combined $12.6 million in savings to Virginia taxpayers and created $1.7 million in additional university savings.

CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation

Under construction on the southeast corner of Broad and Belvidere streets, across from the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, the 213,000-square-foot CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation will bring together under one roof VCU's arts and innovation programs.

It will feature flexible classroom spaces, interdisciplinary performance venues and makerspaces for rapidly growing partnerships across arts, business, humanities and sciences, medicine and engineering.

Construction of the center is anticipated to be completed in late 2027.

Athletic Village

The VCU Athletic Village will include outdoor track facilities, a tennis center, a soccer stadium, an indoor field house and more.

The off-campus VCU Athletic Village, located at the Diamond District near Hermitage Road and Robin Hood Road, will include new sports fields and facilities, including outdoor track facilities and practice fields, a tennis center, a soccer stadium and an indoor field house.

The Athletic Village will reduce travel and increase practice times for teams, and offer new opportunities for community impact through youth programming.

The project will be built in four phases. The first phase consists of constructing the practice fields and outdoor track/soccer fields, and it is anticipated to be completed in early 2026. The Athletic Village also includes a stadium, with working drawings underway and construction planned for 2026.

Founders Hall

Located at 827 W. Franklin St. and built in the mid-1880s, Founders Hall has been undergoing a rehabilitation of the building envelope since fall 2023.

The project includes exterior restoration, including copper and slate roof replacements, low-slope roof replacements, brick and stone masonry restoration, and window repairs. Work also includes installing a thermal envelope in the attic space and reworking access to the attic. The chiller and fire alarm system will also be replaced, which will be separate from the building envelope project.

The project is expected to be finished in November. The building has remained open during construction.

West Grace Street Housing Project

The West Grace Street Housing Project will be a new student residence hall, adding approximately 900 to 1,000 semi-suite- and apartment-style beds. The rendering pictured here is a concept, with the final plans still under design.

The planned West Grace Street Housing Project, an undergraduate residential housing facility, will replace the 518 beds in Johnson Hall and provide additional capacity to meet increased demand. The project will include approximately 900 to 1,000 beds in semi-suite and apartment-style units, and the ground floor will include dining and retail spaces, a secure student housing entrance and a common area.

The Board of Visitors has not yet approved project plans and all information at this time is preliminary and subject to change.

The project, which will be located in the 700 block of West Grace Street, is currently in the schematic design phase.

School of Dentistry

The new home for VCU's School of Dentistry is anticipated to be a five-story, 312,000-square-foot building located at 900 Turpin St., currently the Larrick Student Center.

VCU is home to Virginia's only dental school and is the only facility in the state offering complete multidisciplinary care. The current School of Dentistry buildings are beyond their useful life, do not meet educational or patient care needs, and have significant accessibility issues and deferred maintenance estimated in excess of $75 million.

The proposed new School of Dentistry will provide state-of-the-art education, equipment and technology to serve more than 500 students and maximize care for more than 100,000 visits annually for patients from across Virginia, including underserved populations.

In the preliminary design phase, the school's new home is anticipated to be a five-story, 312,000-square-foot building located at 900 Turpin St., which is now the site of Larrick Student Center.

The preliminary design, which is in the works, will be used to inform a request to Gov. Glenn Youngkin for construction funds in the next biennial budget, which will be considered by the General Assembly in early 2026. Construction would be slated to begin in May 2027, with completion anticipated in late 2029.

Technology Operations Center

This 28,000-square-foot facility located at 707 W. Broad St. was recently constructed and opened after a required relocation of VCU technology operations that were based in the state-owned Pocahontas Building. The new Technology Operations Center serves as the primary data center and network operations hub for both the Monroe Park and the MCV campuses, as well as the telecommunications hub for VCU Health.