Growing Grounds
If you haven’t been back for five years, there’s a lot you won’t recognize
Grounds continues its metamorphosis as new buildings rise. But look closely, says University Architect Alice Raucher, and you’ll see it’s all guided by careful planning grounded in Thomas Jefferson’s vision linking buildings and landscape, where living and learning happen side by side.
“We build in a very mindful way that extends the basic tenets of the initial Jeffersonian Grounds,” Raucher says. That connection between architecture, landscape and uses shapes how UVA is designing more contemporary districts.
“The capital projects, while they obviously allow for growth of the schools and the programs, participate in making Grounds better and more accessible and connected. That happens everywhere, and that’s our overarching concept.”
Here’s a look at changes from the past five years.
Emmet-Ivy Corridor
Once home to the old Cavalier Inn and other scattered uses that weren’t so friendly for pedestrians, these 14.5 acres are getting a dramatic makeover as they turn into a new destination on Grounds and a connector between Central Grounds, the athletics complex and North Grounds. A central open space allows for outdoor gatherings.
In addition to these buildings, UVA is in fundraising mode for a Center for the Arts. State funding for the project, along with capital projects at other higher education institutions in Virginia, was deferred amid economic uncertainty. In a May 2025 letter to the General Assembly, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin called the paused projects “worthy” but said it wasn’t “financially prudent” to move forward with them yet.
School of Data Science
Architects: Hopkins Architects with VMDO
Status: Opened April 2024
The 60,000-square-foot building includes classrooms, study areas, offices and research spaces for UVA’s newest and fast-growing school. In fact, UVA recently began planning this summer for an expansion of the building to make more room for the school and entrepreneurial programs at the university.
Virginia Guesthouse hotel and conference center
Architects: TenBerke Architects with Hanbury
Status: To open spring 2026
The 223,000-square-foot complex will include 214 guest rooms and a 25,000-square-foot conference center with dining and a rooftop bar.
Karsh Institute of Democracy
Architects: Höweler + Yoon Architecture with Hanbury
Status: To open fall 2026
The 65,000-square-foot building will include a 425-seat auditorium, classrooms and media production space. It will serve as a home for the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.
Ivy Road dorms
Architects: Elkus Manfredi Architects with Capstone Development
Status: To open fall 2027
In the spring, UVA broke ground for a three-building apartment-style housing complex with about 800 beds, dining and shops. Having students living in the corridor, Raucher said, will bring around-the-clock vitality to the Emmet-Ivy corridor.
Nearby
All these projects are within easy reach of the Emmet-Ivy corridor, nearby on Emmet Street, in the athletics complex or just up the hill on University Avenue.
Contemplative Commons
Architects: Aidlin Darling Design with VMDO
Status: Opened 2024
Located along Emmet Street, overlooking the Dell and just down the street from Alumni Hall, the 57,000-square-foot building provides space for formal and informal academic and social programs, events and arts installations. It’s also a home base for the Contemplative Innovation + Research Co-Lab, a collaborative research hub aimed at advancing interdisciplinary studies on human transformation.
Memorial Gymnasium
Architects: MCWB Architects, subbed to Affiliated Engineers (AEI)
Status: To open fall 2026
The 101-year-old Mem Gym is getting a major interior makeover that includes new utilities, renovated classrooms, and better spaces for academics and recreation.
Shannon Library
Architects: HBRA Architects
Status: Opened April 2024
The renovation and expansion of the former Alderman Library involved razing the old stacks, building 130,000 square feet of new space, and renovating 100,000 square feet of existing space. Its north-facing side along University Avenue, once bunker-like, now includes plazas and a more welcoming entrance for pedestrians.
Hardie Football Operations Center and Harrison Family Olympic Sports Center
Architects: ZGF Architects
Status: Operations Center opened June 2024; Olympic Sports Center
to open summer 2025.
Part of an Athletics Master Plan that included the demolition of University Hall, the projects provide more space for UVA’s athletics programs. The 93,000-square-foot football operations center includes locker rooms, weight room, coaches’ offices and video operations. The Olympic Sports Center will include space for strength and conditioning, tutoring, academic support and a hall of champions.
North Grounds Parking Garage
Architects: EskewDumezRipple Architects
Status: Scheduled to open 2026
The six-story, 1,030-space garage will sit near the corner of Massie and Copeley roads to serve John Paul Jones Arena and other nearby athletics facilities. It also will serve as a hub for University Transit Service bus routes and bike storage.
Brandon Avenue Corridor
Identified as a “redevelopment zone” in the 2008 UVA Grounds Plan, the Brandon Avenue area was once home to a collection of private and UVA buildings, including Bice House, an on-Grounds residential hall that opened in 1972. Today it’s turned into another UVA-designed “living and learning community” with on-campus housing, dining options and a new wellness center, along with an easy connection along and across Jefferson Park Avenue to UVA’s health system, the new McIntire School of Commerce complex and Central Grounds. Brandon Avenue was turned into a “green street” to better manage stormwater through a landscaped median and to allow for outdoor gathering and events.
Gaston and Ramazani Houses
Architects: Elkus Manfredi Architects with Clark Nexsen
Status: Opened fall 2024
The Gaston and Ramazani houses, two residential buildings with seven- and eight-person apartments that house about 350 upperclass students altogether, are the latest additions to the Brandon Avenue corridor. Another residential building, Bond House, opened in 2019.
Student Health and Wellness Building
Architects: VMDO and Duda|Paine Architects
Status: Opened fall 2021
The four-story, 156,000-square-foot building houses medical services, counseling and psychological services, the student disability access center, and health promotion and well-being. It also serves as a home for UVA’s kinesiology department.
McIntire School Expansion Project
The McIntire School now takes up residence on the southeast corner of the Lawn in a complex that includes Rouss and Robertson halls, along with a renovated Cobb Hall and new Shumway Hall. Ruppel Drive is now closed to traffic and serves as an outdoor space for events.
Shumway Hall and Cobb Hall
Architects: Robert A.M. Stern Architects with Glavé & Holmes Architecture
Status: Opened 2025
Built in 1917, Cobb Hall, which originally served the chemistry department, has been updated to include more modern spaces for learning and collaboration. A 1930s addition to Cobb was removed to make way for the entirely new Shumway Hall, which includes a two-story student success center and “grand classroom” for daytime classes and evening programs.
McCormick Road Science Buildings
Three of UVA’s primary science buildings, all opened in the 1950s and 1960s, have undergone major renovations in recent years to bring them up to the current century’s standards.
Chemistry Building
Architect: Perkins&Will
Status: Completed 2020
Built a few years after Gilmer, the building’s extensive renovations added informal learning and collaboration spaces and updated the research areas and teaching labs. The new lobby includes a bright and open commons area.
Gilmer Hall
Architect: Perkins&Will
Status: Completed 2022
Built in the 1960s, Gilmer’s interior and exterior were transformed. The old concrete facade facing McCormick is now a glass wall, and the once closed-off labs are open, flexible spaces for biology and psychology research.
Physics Building
Architect: Goody Clancy
Status: Reopened fall 2024
Originally opened in 1954, the renovated building has better lighting, an updated floor plan and more space for collaboration.
North Grounds
The Forum Hotel at Darden
Architects: Cooper Carry with Glavé & Holmes Architecture
Status: Opened April 2023
The five-story hotel includes 198 rooms, dining options, an arboretum and botanical gardens, and 22,000 square feet of meeting space and classrooms.
