Plans were approved early this week for Virginia Tech’s new 130,000-square-foot, $89 million Center for the Arts, which is expected to help redefine downtown Blacksburg and shape the performing and visual arts environment throughout the region.“As a university, we must strive to educate the whole person — to prepare students for life at work as well as for life beyond work,” says Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger. “The study of the arts helps us achieve this goal, and our new Center for the Arts will be our new home for the fine and performing arts that will enrich the lives of our students, and the entire university community as well, for generations to come.”
Construction of the facility will begin this fall and is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2013. The center's design was led by the globally renowned architectural firm, Snøhetta, winner of the international competition to create a museum pavilion at the World Trade Center site in New York City. Joining Snøhetta on the project are STV Architects, with offices in Fairfax; Holder Construction Co., construction manager-at-risk, with offices in Herndon; Arup, a global engineering and acoustics firm with corporate offices in New York City; and Theatre Projects Consultants, headquartered in Norwalk, Conn.
The Center for the Arts complex will include both new and renovated facilities at the intersection of North Main Street and Alumni Mall. “Its location — at the main entrance to campus near the center of Blacksburg--symbolizes our commitment to the arts and its importance to the university and to our broader community,” says Ruth Waalkes, executive director for the Center for the Arts.
The Center for the Arts will comprise three major areas — the performance hall, several visual arts galleries, and the Center for Creative Technologies in the Arts. It will seat 1,300 people and will have the flexibility to present theatre, music, and dance performances. The visual arts galleries will incorporate display space for traditional visual art as well as interactive and digital forms and will exhibit both temporarily donated and university-owned artwork.
The space will also be suitable for interactive and distance-learning activities and will further facilitate collaborations with the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, to include exhibitions and educational outreach opportunities.
The Center for Creative Technologies in the Arts will be housed in new space as well as renovated space in Schultz Hall. The center, a technological incubator, laboratory, and studio setting to be sued to explore the many intersections of art, education, and technology, will enhance public education at the primary, secondary, undergraduate, and graduate education levels.
The center will include the Collaborative Performance Lab that will provide a venue for exploration for the visual and performance arts using the latest interactive technology.
Construction of the facility will begin this fall and is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2013. The center's design was led by the globally renowned architectural firm, Snøhetta, winner of the international competition to create a museum pavilion at the World Trade Center site in New York City. Joining Snøhetta on the project are STV Architects, with offices in Fairfax; Holder Construction Co., construction manager-at-risk, with offices in Herndon; Arup, a global engineering and acoustics firm with corporate offices in New York City; and Theatre Projects Consultants, headquartered in Norwalk, Conn.
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