Karsh Institute Design Moves Forward

A permanent home for the Karsh Institute of Democracy is closer to reality. The Board of Visitors’ Building and Grounds Committee approved plans in June for a four-story, 65,000-square-foot building designed to evoke images of the Rotunda and reflect the institute’s multidisciplinary approach to addressing global challenges facing democracy.

“Our focus is how our work can help make the aspirations of democracy a reality,” said Melody Barnes, the institute’s executive director.

The Karsh Institute’s building will serve as a focal point along the emerging Emmet-Ivy corridor, sitting at one end just as the Rotunda does on the Lawn. After BOV discussion about the design’s fidelity to UVA architecture, the building’s façade will display the curved, red exterior of its auditorium behind a lattice, evoking the Rotunda and its columns.

Strengthening global democracy requires an all-hands-on-deck approach, Barnes said, and the institute is already working on projects across UVA and around the country. The institute is accelerating its collaboration, she said, with existing UVA programs that focus on democracy, including the Center for Politics, the Miller Center, the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, which is now integrated with Karsh. The Batten School will occupy about one-fourth of the Karsh Institute’s building when it opens, while also maintaining its current space at Garrett Hall.

The design reflects those collaborative efforts, Barnes said. Multiple entry points make it easy for people participating in in-person programs to engage. With state-of-the-art technology, the building is also designed to better reach and feature people virtually, including through multimedia space for creating podcasts and video documentaries and with projection capabilities inside the auditorium.

“This is an extroverted building,” Barnes said. “It is a building to actively seek people out and hoping to draw them in and to include them. It is a place of inclusion.”

In one more nod to the Rotunda, the project, with an $80 million budget, is scheduled to open in 2026 on the historic structure’s 200th anniversary. Said Barnes: “It’s wonderful the way that it’s all aligning.”