Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village is an exemplar of coherent planning, the conception of an ideal setting for the life of the mind. Following Jefferson's model, our effort to develop the Grounds are guided by a forward-looking master plan designed to maintain a cohesive community of learners. With the help of many benefactors, we have made great strides in realizing this plan, as visitors to the North Grounds can easily attest, but a number of our very best programs, particularly on the Central Grounds, struggle because of woefully inadequate and deteriorating facilities. Lack of space is also our chief impediment to securing additional research funding for our groundbreaking projects. 

We have set ambitious but achievable goals for addressing these needs. At the same time, we have envisioned ways to reconnect all sectors of the University Grounds; to integrate academic, residential, and recreational uses in ways that create a collegial atmosphere; and to provide a pleasant, livable environment for faculty, students, and staff.

Completed This Year

The Right Environment for Environmental Sciences Environmental sciences faculty and staff began moving into the new Clark Hall addition during the last week in July. The four-story, 45,000-square-foot facility provides much-needed office, laboratory, and computational space for the department, which has occupied Clark Hall, the former Law School building, since the 1970s. Designed by Ellenzweig Associates, the $24 million wing was funded in part by a $10 million gift from alumnus Paul Tudor Jones II (College '76), a champion of efforts to protect the environment. The $11 million renovation of Clark Hall itself is now under way and is expected to be completed by September 2003. The Science and Engineering Library in Clark Hall, virtually unchanged since it opened in the 1930s as the law library, is also being modernized and expanded.

New Space for Biomedical Research
In February 2002, biomedical scientists and engineers occupied Medical Research Building 5, which was funded in part by generous grants from the Whitaker Foundation. Helping to meet a critical need for additional medical research space, the 155,000-square-foot facility houses seventy laboratories used by 425 researchers in biomedical engineering and pathology. MR-5 also houses interdisciplinary research programs on cardiovascular disease, which afflicts more than 58 million Americans.

A Focal Point for Diabetes Research
At the Fontaine Research Park, a new 70,000-square-foot medical research building has been named in memory of endocrinologist Gerald D. Aurbach, M.D. (College '50, Medicine '54), one of the most accomplished medical scientists ever to graduate from the University. From 1973 until his death in 1991, Dr. Aurbach was chief of metabolic disease research at the National Institutes of Health. To contain the Center for Cellular Transplantation and research programs conducted by the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism (ranked among the nation's top ten departments by U.S. News & World Report), the new building also will house researchers working on osteoporosis, breast and prostate cancer, estrogen and hormone replacement, and obesity.

We have envisioned ways to reconnect all sectors of the University Grounds and to integrate academic, residential, and recreational uses in ways that build a cohesive and collegial community. 

Total Language Immersion
In the weeks before the 2002-2003 session began, construction workers put the final touches on the new language house at the corner of Monroe Lane and Jefferson Park Avenue. The building's seventy-five residents will live in an environment of total immersion in Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi-Urdu, Italian, Japanese, or Persian. Designed by Mitchell/Matthews and Associates, the Monroe Lane language house is the latest addition to the Language Precinct, which includes Casa Bolívar for students of Spanish, La Maison Française (in Barringer House), and the Max Kade German house.

The Miller Center's Thompson Pavilion
The $7 million Kenneth W. Thompson Pavilion at the Miller Center of Public Affairs was completed this fall. Former President Jimmy Carter and Virginia Governor Mark Warner took part in the September 23 dedication of the building, which will house the Scripps Library and Multimedia Archive and more than a dozen offices for the center's research programs on the American presidency. The new library was made possible by a $1.6 million challenge gift from Betty Scripps Harvey and Jeremy G. Harvey on behalf of the Edward W. and Betty Knight Scripps Foundation. Designed by Reno-Geier Brown Renfrow Architects, the new pavilion is named for Kenneth W. Thompson, who served as the center's director from 1978 to 1998.

A Place for Students and Faculty at the Law School
The Law School's new Student and Faculty Center, a $6 million addition to the David A. Harrison III Law Grounds, includes informal and formal dining rooms, a study lounge with plenty of comfortable seating, and a coffee bar. From Hunton & Williams Hall, students and faculty enter the new facility through a sun-drenched central atrium named Scott Commons in honor of former Dean Robert E. Scott. Designed by Train & Spencer Architects, the facility serves as a town square for the Law School community.

On Their Way Up

A New Home for Special Collections
Miller Hall, home of the Office of Admission before it moved to Peabody Hall, gave way to the wrecking ball to make room for a new library complex. It will house the Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture and the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. This innovative building will feature climate-controlled stacks, the latest digital technology, exhibition galleries, research centers, multimedia classrooms, a gift shop, and an auditorium. Designed by Hartman-Cox Architects of Washington, D.C., it is scheduled to be completed in early 2004.

Fulfilling the Darden Vision
Work is nearing completion on Phase II of the new Darden Grounds. A new student lounge, group study rooms, a 400-seat auditorium, a 450-seat dining room, a bookstore, and a parking garage have been finished, while progress is being made on additional classrooms and faculty offices. The architectural and planning firm of Ayers/Saint/Gross designed the Phase II facilities.

Aquatics and Fitness Center
Construction began in July on a $10.4 million addition that was planned as Phase II of the Aquatics and Fitness Center. When finished in November 2003, it will add intramural basketball courts and an indoor running track to the center's facilities. Designed by Hughes Group Architects of Sterling, Virginia, the facility will be paid for through revenue bonds, gifts, and auxiliary funds.

On the Drawing Board

A Bold Plan for the Venerable South Lawn
In the College of Arts and Sciences, deteriorating buildings that now house some of the finest liberal arts programs in the country will be renovated, replaced, and joined by new facilities in the most ambitious construction program on Central Grounds in more than a century. Designed by Polshek Partnership of New York and to be financed with a combination of funds committed by the Board of Visitors, state support, and gifts to be raised from alumni and friends, the South Lawn Project will replace the fifty-year-old New Cabell Hall. In its place will be buildings and landscapes that extend the Academical Village across Jefferson Park Avenue to what is now the B-1 parking lot. When this project is completed, it will serve more than 12,000 students a day. The University already has received major commitments for the South Lawn Project, including $3.8 million from David Gibson (College '62, Law '65), $1 million from Joshua P. Darden, Jr. (College '58), and $1 million from James C. Slaughter (College '49, Law '51) and the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.

In the same neighborhood, the McIntire School of Commerce and the College of Arts and Sciences are collaborating on a plan to bring McIntire back to the Lawn. The Commerce School will leave Monroe Hall and will again occupy Rouss Hall, one of the McKim, Mead & White buildings completed in 1898. McIntire also plans to raise a 100,000-square-foot building to the southeast of the historic structure toward Hospital Drive, which will be designed by Hartman-Cox Architects. Rouss Hall will be refurbished, and its lecture halls will provide a site for joint teaching initiatives by McIntire and College faculty, such as collaborative programs supported by a new gift from John Griffin (McIntire '85) of New York. Departments in Arts and Sciences will occupy Monroe Hall, which has been home to the Commerce School since 1975, when the Darden School vacated the facility to move to the North Grounds.

A New Site for Nanoscopic Research
The School of Engineering and Applied Science has embarked on a building project that will help establish the school and the University as national leaders in research on nanoscopic materials-work conducted at the scale of the nanometer, or one-billionth of a meter. Containing laboratories for the fabrication of thin films, materials characterization at the atomic level, and the development of nanoscopic devices, the building will be funded in part by a gift from Greg Olsen (Engineering '71). It is named for the late Heinz Wilsdorf and his wife, Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf, two distinguished members of the science faculty. It also will house the new National Science Foundation center on designing nanoscopic materials. VMDO Architects is designing the project.

Expansion in the Health System
The University Hospital plans to break ground this fall on a $71 million, four-story addition that will house new operating rooms, a larger heart center, and other facilities. As part of this project, 180,000 square feet of the existing hospital will be renovated and modernized. RTKL is designing the facility. Elsewhere in the Health System, the School of Nursing is planning a five-story, 30,000-square-foot addition to McLeod Hall.