Following the completion of several construction projects over the summer, including at the McIntire School of Commerce and the Harrison Family Olympic Sports Center, the University now looks ahead to the major projects at the Ivy Corridor and Fontaine Research Park, which are slowly nearing completion. Similarly, several private projects that will provide off-Grounds housing to students are also underway.
Mark Stanis, director of capital construction and renovations for Facilities Management, gave an overview of some recently completed and upcoming projects that should be of interest to students.
Ongoing or upcoming projects
For construction work that is currently underway, Stanis says that the University has two main areas of development, with the first at the Ivy Corridor.
“[At Ivy] we are working on the Virginia Guesthouse that will be opening in the spring of [2026] … [the Guesthouse] will provide a first floor that we call ‘the living room’ that will be open to everybody in the community … then there will be a hotel and conference center above that,” Stanis said.
Stanis says that the Karsh Institute of Democracy should be completed at the Ivy Corridor in 2026, and that University-affiliated upperclass housing, which will have 780 beds for students, will be open by the Fall 2027 semester.
The other major area of University construction is at Fontaine Research Park, where a parking garage was recently completed, and where several projects are currently underway. Fontaine Research Park is a large University-owned property near U.S. Route 29 and Fontaine Avenue which houses U.Va. Health offices.
“[At Fontaine] we [will] have a 350,000 square foot Manning Institute of Biotechnology,” Stanis said. “We [will] also have our first fossil-fuel-free energy plant that will provide heating … and chilled water for the Manning Institute as well as some other buildings.”
Stanis also described numerous apartment buildings under construction that though not affiliated with the University, will provide students with another off-Grounds housing option. The first is the Blume on Ivy, soon to be located west of Copeley Road, and the second is VERVE, which will be located at the intersections of Jefferson Park Avenue at Emmet Street and Stadium Road.
A more minor project Stanis mentioned is the addition of a sidewalk on the north side of JPA near McIntire, which will likely be completed at the end of October or beginning of November. The sidewalk will provide a pedestrian connection between Brandon Avenue to the Health Sciences Library.
Stanis said he does not anticipate that any new updates will cause major disruptions and affect vehicle traffic or foot/traffic patterns in the near future.
Recently completed projects
Stanis said that the expansion of McIntire, which wrapped up as late as June, and the completion of the Harrison Sports Center were the University’s two major summer projects.
Students have already been frequenting McIntire’s newly constructed Shumway Hall for several months now, and the reaction is largely positive. Second-year Commerce student Cyrus Sharafi said that in the midst of the recent changes to McIntire’s program, the addition of Shumway is welcoming and exciting.
“From my experience of the Shumway building, it is an immense good for the University [and] for us Commerce students” Sharafi said. “[It] is just such a nice building to study at.”
As for the Harrison Family Olympic Sports Center, the University’s new sports facility which held its ribbon-cutting ceremony just a few weeks ago, Stanis said he believes this project is particularly noteworthy due to the improved conditions it will provide for student athletes.
“[It is] really exciting … because of the number of student athletes and others that are now able to move into that building and out of modular locker rooms that they’ve been using since [University] Hall was demolished eight [or] nine years ago,” Stanis said.
Another major project completed recently is the new Fontaine parking garage, which Stanis believes should be helpful for faculty and staff that previously used the Emmet-Ivy Garage to park near the University Health System. The garage will accommodate 1,240 vehicles as well as 14 electric vehicle chargers.
Other recently completed work includes phase one of the Central Grounds Accessibility Project, which Stanis said now provides an outdoor ramp from the Central Grounds Garage up to the level of the Lawn. Phase two, which he said will likely be completed next summer, will allow individuals at the parking garage level of the Central Grounds Garage to access the Lawn level.
More information, including day-to-day disruptions, can be found on the Facilities Management website.
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