Campus of Virginia Tech

The main campus of Virginia Tech is located in Blacksburg, Virginia; the central campus is roughly bordered by Prices Fork Road to the northwest, Plantation Road to the west, Main Street to the east, and U.S. Route 460 bypass to the south, although it also has several thousand acres beyond the central campus. The Virginia Tech campus consists of 130 buildings on approximately 2,600 acres (11 km). It was the site of the Draper's Meadow massacre in 1755 during the French and Indian War.
Virginia Tech's presence in the National Capital Region is continually expanding. Current locations include Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Falls Church, Leesburg, Manassas, and Middleburg. The university also has several commonwealth branch campus centers: Hampton Roads (Virginia Beach), Richmond, Roanoke, and the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon. The university also owns the Center for European Studies and Architecture in Ticino, Switzerland.
Originally known as the Home Economics Building, Agnew Hall was constructed in 1940 at a cost of $42,525. In 1949 it was named in honor of Ella Graham Agnew, the first woman to receive a field appointment from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The building is used primarily by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. In 2009, a $1.6 million renovation took place which added lab space to the first floor for the Department of Biological Systems Engineering.
Bishop-Favrao Hall is home to the Department of Building Construction, which is under the College of Architecture and Urban Studies (CAUS), and the Myers-Lawson School of Construction. Much of the building has its systems exposed so that students can see them and learn about the systems. Bishop-Favrao was completed in December 2007 and is named after Richard Bishop and William Favrao, the Department of Building Construction's founder and department head until 1977.
Constructed in 1998 and named after Charles Burchard, the founding dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies between 1964 and 1979, Burchard Hall provides studio space for students in the architecture and industrial design programs. The building also provides office and classroom spaces as well as specialized studio space. Burchard Hall is actually constructed underground and has four pyramidal skylights that illuminate the studio spaces below. One can access Burchard Hall via either of the three access portals on the "roof", or through the ground-floor entrances. Burchard Hall also has a walkway connecting it to the nearby Cowgill Hall.
Constructed in 1936 facing the center of the drill field and originally known as the Teaching and Administration Building, Burruss Hall is the main administration building on campus and the iconic symbol of Virginia Tech. A west wing and rear addition were built in 1968, and an east wing was added in 1970. It contains a 3,003-seat auditorium, a venue where major events such as commencement, presidential speeches, concerts, and performing arts shows are held. Additionally, the first floor of the building houses faculty offices, studios and classrooms for the College of Architecture and Urban Studies. The building is named for the eighth president of Virginia Tech, Julian Ashby Burruss.
Cowgill Hall, located on Perry Street, is the home of Virginia Tech's College of Architecture and Urban Studies. It was completed in 1969 and is named for Clinton Harriman Cowgill, who retired in 1956 after 28 years as the architecture department head.
In 2006 Cowgill Hall was named the winner of the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects Test of Time Award. This award is presented annually to a building that has served the same function for at least 25 years.
Davidson Hall contains office space, teaching labs, and classrooms. Originally constructed in 1928, additions to the structure were completed in 1933 and 1938; the structure was also renovated between 1964 and 1965. Named in honor of Robert James Davidson, the Dean of the Department of Applied Sciences, it was the department home for the Department of Chemistry. Davidson was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the Washington Academy of Science, a member of the American Chemical Society, and served as the President of the National Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, in 1903. Davidson was also a delegate to the International Congress of Applied Chemistry at London, in 1909.
In 2012 a $31 million renovation of Davidson Hall broke ground. When completed, Davidson Hall will have modern research laboratories, office space, new classrooms, and a 300-person auditorium. As of May 2014, substantial completion was expected in May 2014.
Derring Hall, a five-story building, was constructed in 1969 and contains offices, classroom space, and laboratories for primarily the biological sciences and geosciences programs at Virginia Tech. The building was named after Paul Neyron Derring, a popular administrator with the students, who was stricken blind at the age of thirteen. Derring served on the State Commission for the Visually Handicapped and served on the Blacksburg Town Council.
Durham Hall, a $16 million project, opened in 1998 and was called "New Engineering Building", or "The NEB", until 2001. It was named in honor of Fred D. Durham, co-founder of the Dover Corporation, a Fortune 500 manufacturing company located in New York City.
Norris Hall is a four-story (1 floor below grade) Hokie Stone academic building located between Burruss and Holden Halls. The two wings of the building, built in 1960 and 1962, encompass approximately 70,000 gross square feet and house the main office for the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, room 219, and used to house the Dean's Office for the College of Engineering, room 333, The building has been home to the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, room 223, for almost fifty years, and is named for Earl Bertram Norris, who served as dean of engineering for twenty-four years between 1928 and 1952.
Norris Hall was also the location of the second shooting attack during the Virginia Tech shootings on April 16, 2007. The building was the site of 31 of the 33 fatalities (including the gunman), and all 17 wounded faculty and students. The building was closed for the rest of the 2007 spring semester, and reopened with access limited to faculty and students with legitimate business inside at remaining offices and laboratories on June 18, 2007. On December 20, 2007, it was announced that the second floor of Norris would be renovated and become home to the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention.
On April 10, 2009, a ceremony was held to commemorate the reopening of the west wing of Norris Hall. The area consists of six reconfigured rooms and laboratories and is home to the new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention as well as the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics. The renovation project was completed in March 2009 at a cost of approximately one million dollars; many goods and services were donated by individuals and contractors in support of the project. As department head of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Dr. Ishwar Puri played a leading role in the reoccupation of Norris Hall where his department is housed. Among other roles, he spoke at the April 10 ceremony.
Originally constructed in 1936 and renovated in 1998, the Military Building is located on the Upper Quad. It is the base of operations for the Virginia Tech Rescue Squad and home to the Army, Navy, and Air Force ROTC programs. It also houses the College of Engineering's Joseph F. Ware, Jr. Advanced Engineering Lab.
Work began on the Joseph F. Ware, Jr. Advanced Engineering Lab (Ware Lab) in 1997, in a collaboration of Joseph F. Ware, Jr., his wife Jennifer "Jenna" Ware, MSW, LCSW, ATP/CFI, and Hayden Griffin, Ph.D. of Virginia Tech., and the Ware Lab was opened September 4, 1998. The Lab is named after its founder and 1937 Mechanical Engineering Alumnus Joseph F. Ware, Jr. As a part of the College of Engineering, the Ware Lab is home to many student-based research and design projects. Focused on a hands-on-learning environment, students are encouraged to participate in these projects as early as their freshman year. The Klages Machine Shop is also located within the Ware Lab and is equipped with various machine tools used for project manufacturing, including two Numerical Control (CNC) Machines. The lab is home to such notable teams as the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team, Formula SAE (VT Motorsports), BOLT all electric motorcycle team and the Baja SAE team. Other teams in the lab include AISC Steel Bridge (SBT), Design Build Fly (DBF), and the Autonomous Aerial Vehicle Team (AAVT).
Other academic buildings on the Blacksburg campus:
Lane Stadium is the stadium for Virginia Tech's football team. It opened in 1965 has been rated as having the "number one home field advantage" in all of college football. It replaced Miles Stadium, a smaller facility that once stood directly behind the War Memorial Gym.
Cassell Coliseum is a 10,052-seat multi-purpose arena in Blacksburg, Virginia. The arena opened in 1961. It is home to the Virginia Tech Hokies men's and women's basketball teams.
Additional athletic facilities:
Ambler Johnston Hall is a large co-ed undergraduate residence hall located on Washington Street across from the Cassell Coliseum parking lot in what is known as the Summit Community. Completed in 1968, the hall is named after Ambler Johnston, a 1904 graduate of Virginia Tech, who was the co-founder of Carneal & Johnston Architects (now Ballou Justice and Upton Architects).
The hall is divided into two wings, commonly referred to as East AJ and West AJ on campus. West AJ is the larger of the two halls and is taller by one story. The wings are connected by commons areas on the first, third, and sixth floors.
West AJ's fourth floor was the location of the first of two attacks during the Virginia Tech shootings on April 16, 2007, which resulted in the shooting deaths of a female resident and a male resident adviser. In early 2010, two students are reported to have broken onto the roof of the larger hall, West Ambler Johnston.
East Ambler Johnston reopened in the fall of 2011 as the Honors Residential College (HRC). The newly renovated East AJ features some rooms with private baths, several apartments where four student share a living room, bath, two bedrooms, and kitchen. Some traditional halls where bathroom facilities are shared by half a floor were retained; however, these too were remodeled. The latest renovation added air conditioning.
In the "bridge" that spans between East and West AJ and on the lower levels, there are meeting rooms, a student kitchen, a game room, a weight/exercise room, a theater, a library, a mail room, and laundry facilities that can be accessed through the university's "laundry web" (students can reserve machines and see if their wash/dry is done via the Internet). Also in the "bridge" is an apartment for the faculty members who are "in residence" in the HRC.
West AJ reopened in the fall of 2012. It houses the university's second Residential College with approximately 800 students and is divided into four houses: Hickory, Hawthorn, Honey Locust, and Holly. The Residential College focuses on building of community values and partnership, with each house holding its own events and having its own government structure.
Hilcrest Honors Community is the smallest residence hall in Virginia Tech at a student capacity of 108. Unlike most of the other residence halls on campus, it is required that all of its occupants maintain a grade point average of 3.50 and it is customary that they live in the building for the duration of their undergraduate education. The Honors Residential College in East Ambler Johnston is the only other residence hall which has the same requirements.
In addition to being a residence hall on the second and third floors, Hillcrest houses Virginia Tech's University Honors offices on the first floor and the Residence Hall Federation office in the basement. Community residents thus have the opportunity to maintain close personal relationships with the Honors staff.
Hillcrest Hall is one of very few buildings and the only residence hall at Virginia Tech not named for a person. The name is derived from its location at the crest of a hill at the east end of Virginia Tech's central Drillfield, between West Campus Drive and the Grove. It is one of the few red brick buildings on a campus known for its "Hokie Stone" architecture.
When women were integrated into VPI, it was the first and only women's dormitory and was built on what was then the far corner of the campus near several large livestock barns used by the College of Agriculture that once stood near where Harper Hall now stands. When Hillcrest opened in 1940 it was promptly dubbed the "skirt barn" by VPI cadets. One of the Honors offices on the first floor used to be a "courting room" when Hillcrest Hall was the women's dormitory. Because visitation was not permitted in the residence hall, and women were not allowed to leave campus on dates, courting took place in this room. Young men would enter the room from one door and the young ladies would enter the room from another. Only a few feet away was the room where the house mother would be there to supervise.
Hoge Hall is located on Washington Street on the Prairie Quad. The building is named for Janie and William Hoge, a local African American couple that hosted several African American students, including Irving L. Peddrew III, between 1953 and 1959, before African American students were permitted to live on campus in 1961. The building was completed in 1966 and houses 811 residents on its eight floors. It also includes the Galileo and Hypatia engineering "living-learning" programs.
Hoge Hall was formerly known as Lee Hall for more than half a century. It was named for Dr. Claudius Lee, an 1896 alumnus of Tech and a professor of electrical engineering who served the university in various capacities for nearly seventy years. In 1997, students in a history class found a page in the 1896 Bugle (Virginia Tech's student yearbook) that seemed to indicate that while an undergraduate, over a century earlier, Claudius Lee had been president of a campus Ku Klux Klan where he was listed as the "Father of Terror" as well as being named "Arch-fiend" of the Pittsylvania Club organization, whose yearbook page featured a black person being lynched. After more than two decades of pressure from students and alumni, Lee Hall was renamed Hoge Hall after the late Janie and William Hoge. Janie and William Hoge were a local African American couple who ran a boarding house in Blacksburg and played a crucial role in the success and well-being of the first African American students attending Virginia Polytechnic Institute in the 1950s. At the time black cadets attending VPI, then a predominately white, predominately male, military institute were not allowed to live in the dorms or eat in the dining halls on campus due to Virginia's Jim Crow laws so they boarded with the Hoges instead.
A panel named by then-president Paul Torgersen to address the issue examined the available historical records about the organization. A Klan expert hired by the university, John Kneebone, determined that the Klan was extinct in Virginia in 1896, leaving open the possibility that this may have been some kind of collegiate society or fraternity attempting to appropriate the image of the Reconstruction era Klan. At the time proposals to rename the building were strongly opposed by many older alumni who had known Claudius Lee during his long tenure as a professor.
The issue of Lee Hall re-emerged in 2004, and the Virginia Tech Commission on Equal Opportunity and Diversity issued recommendations to broaden education on the subject of Claudius Lee and also for strengthening diversity efforts across the university. On August 13, 2020 the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors voted to rename Lee Hall, after a petition to rename the building on Change.org gained over 13,000 signatures. Another residence hall, Barringer Hall, named for the sixth president of Virginia Tech, Paul Brandon Barringer, a physician who advocated eugenics and expressed white supremacist views in his early 20th century speeches and writings was also renamed at the same time. This sentiment emerged as part of the broader social movement as a result of the ongoing George Floyd protests.
The building's penthouse, the highest point in Blacksburg, was home to the campus radio station, WUVT-FM's, transmitter until May 2009, when the station vacated Lee Hall as part of the process of upgrading to a new transmitter and transmit location atop Price Mountain.
The Oak Lane Community is located off of the Duck Pond and Virginia Tech Golf course. The community features 15 houses that serve 19 fraternity and sorority chapters. The community is designated as Special Purpose Housing and while the buildings are considered to be private homes, the facilities are owned and maintained by Virginia Tech Housing and Residence Life. Oak Lane is also home to a pilot program, the Innovate Entrepreneurial Living Learning Community.
The twelve-storey Slusher Tower built in 1972 is the tallest building in Blacksburg. Slusher Tower, including a three-story annex, Slusher Wing, was originally an all male dorm is a co-ed residence hall, that houses 630 students and is home to the WING and MOSAIC theme housing programs. In 1997, Melinda Marie Somers, 18, a sophomore, died after accidentally falling through an open window on the 8th floor of Slusher Tower, prompting the university to install horizontal bars across windows in the building.
The quad formed by Slusher Tower, Slusher Wing, Main Campbell and East Campbell Halls has long been referred to as "Slusher Beach", originating from the use of the area by students to sunbathe and play beach volleyball on its sand court during warm weather.
In 2018 the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors approved spending $3.5 million to develop a plan to replace Slusher Hall. Due to its poor condition, Virginia Tech has determined that the 50-year-old high-rise structure should be replaced rather than renovated. The university plans to first build and occupy a new residence hall near the existing Slusher Hall, then demolish Slusher Hall, and construct a second residence hall on the site. The two new residence halls will have a total student occupancy that will equal or exceed the existing Slusher Hall.
Virginia Tech offers 23 Living Learning Communities (LLCs) and 3 Residential Colleges for on-campus students. They serve as an alternative experience for their residents and communities range across a variety of topics and shared experiences. Most of these programs have course requirements for participation, with some noted exceptions.
Residential Colleges, unlike LLCs, have a live-in faculty principal and a more complex structure of student leadership. Students who opt to participate in one of these programs also must agree to two years of on-campus housing rather than just one, as is required for most incoming freshmen by the university.
The Residence Hall Federation (RHF) is a University Chartered Student Organization. This organization exists to serve the 9,000 on-campus residents through hall councils in each residence hall. The RHF is composed of 23 hall councils, representing the residents of each hall, and three community councils, which represent two or more halls that share a common trait. Each individual hall council receives a programming budget of $1 per resident (or $400 if there are fewer than 400 residents) from the Student Programs office and from the RHF budget. The RHF Officer Group consists of 16 members, composing an Executive Board and a Board of Directors.
Like the Resident Advisors employed by the school, the Hall Councils produce programs that entertain and educate the residents of the buildings that they serve. These programs range from movie nights to exam study breaks. In addition, the RHF officer group also puts on campus-wide programs, under the command of the Director of Programs. Traditionally, the campus-wide programs have been Campus-Kickoff, Pizza Bonanza, and Hokies Hold'Em. The RHF also performs a number of community service projects.
Dietrick Dining Center, or Dietrick Hall, is the largest of Virginia Tech's six dining facilities, seating 1,100 and serving on average 3,758 students daily. The building opened in 1970 at a cost of $2.8 million.
The main dining area, now called "D2", was known as the "Depot at Dietrick" prior to a $6.5 million renovation completed in 2004 that converted the hall from a cafeteria-style facility to one that more closely resembles a food court. The building also contains the Dietrick General Store, an extension of the University Bookstore; "Deet's Place", a coffee and ice cream shop; and the Dietrick Express, a fast food à la carte facility.
West End Market opened in 1999 as Virginia Tech's second major food court dining facility. Adjoined to Cochrane Hall, this facility was known as Cochrane Dining Hall until it closed in 1997 for remodeling.
West End Market was recognized in 1999 by the National Association of College and University Food Services as the best university specialty restaurant in the country and has been rated by the Princeton Review as one of the Top 3 school dining facilities multiple times, achieving the #1 spot in 2006.
West End Market offers students meals ranging from burgers, sandwiches, wraps, and pizza (cooked in a their own stone hearth pizza oven), to fresh grilled fish, steaks, and lobster taken from JP's Chop House Lobster tank.
Owens Hall opened in 1940 as a replacement for Virginia Tech's military mess hall. It was closed and completely renovated in the early 1990s.
The Food Court contains twelve a la carte specialty shops. Owens Hall was voted by Joe Frett Weekly to have the "Best Philly Cheesesteaks in the U.S." In 1997, a section of the building called the Hokie Grill & Co. was remodeled to feature Chick-fil-A and Pizza Hut franchises. In its first year, the Chick-fil-A became the top-selling of all Chick-fil-A franchises located on college campuses. Other shops featured include Wǎn, featuring Asian cuisine, Tazón, with Mexican dishes, and Frank's, a sandwich shop named after former football coach Frank Beamer.
Owens Hall is located on Kent Street in the Lower Quad.
Opened in August 2012, Turner Place at Lavery Hall is the newest dining hall at Virginia Tech. It features: Atomic Pizzeria, Jamba Juice, 1872 Fire Grill, Qdoba Mexican Grill, Origami (a hibachi grill), Soup Garden, Dolci e Caffe, and Bruegger's Bagels. There is also a 256-seat dining hall that is for the Corps of Cadets.
Burruss Hall is the main administration building, it also contains a 3,003-seat auditorium and houses several departments in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies. It consists of the original building, completed in June 1936 (cost $428,404; 77,080 sq ft (7,161 m) ); a west wing and rear addition, built in 1968 (cost $1,536,899; 60,503 sq ft (5,620.9 m)); and an east wing, built in 1970 (cost $593,729; 20,638 sq ft (1,917.3 m)). The cornerstone of the original building was laid at the 1935 commencement; the first commencement was held in the auditorium in June 1936. An electronic carillon, costing $28,000, was added in 1958 and was dedicated at Homecoming that year. It was originally known as the Teaching and Administration Building.
Julian Ashby Burruss (1876–1947) was President from 1919 to 1945. The first alumnus president, Burruss guided VPI through tremendous increases in faculty, student body, and degree offerings; vast growth in the physical plant; and efficient changes in administrative structure. He successfully pushed to admit women and shortened the military requirement to two years, setting the stage for a larger civilian student body. During his tenure, Radford College became the Women's Division of VPI.
The G. Burke Johnston Student Center (most commonly called GBJ) contains student activities rooms also used as classrooms during the day, a Subway food court, and study areas. The Add Caldwell Lounge is located on the upper level, named for Virginia Tech's first student, Addison Caldwell. On the bottom floor of this three-story building is the entrance to the Pamplin tunnel, which connects this building with the adjacent Pamplin Hall; there is also a bridge on the third floor connecting it to Burruss Hall.
Completed in 2010, the Perry Street Parking Deck is a five-level parking deck that can accommodate 1,300 vehicles. Parking Services now maintains a satellite located on the first floor of the parking deck. In the spring of 2012, a $1.2 million project, funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, installed 480 solar panels on top of the parking deck. The solar panels cover an area of 16,000 square feet and are expected to generate about 136,000 kilowatt-hours annually, or about 13% of the total parking deck's power usage.
A campus landmark, the power plant is located across Old Turner Street from the upper quad. Its 180-foot (55 m) chimney can be seen from many places throughout Blacksburg. The plant is a cogeneration facility that provides electricity, heat and steam for the campus.
On the Blacksburg campus, the majority of the buildings incorporate Hokie Stone as a building material. Hokie Stone is a medley of different-colored limestone, often including dolomite. Each block of Hokie Stone is some combination of gray, brown, black, pink, orange, and maroon. The limestone is mined from various quarries in Southwestern Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama, one of which has been operated by the university since the 1950s.
The Duck Pond is a man-made water feature created in the 1930s, situated along the northwest portion of the Blacksburg campus. The most notable feature is a gazebo located on its south side connected to picnic and seating areas by pedestrian pathways. It is adjacent to Solitude, a Greek-revival home built in the early 1800s, the oldest structure on campus.
There are 14 gargoyles which appear on Tech buildings, especially older buildings. They appear on Smyth, Hillcrest, Saunders, and Eggleston Halls. Although some, like those on the Eggleston archway, are functional, the majority are merely ornamental. Among the more distinctive gargoyles on campus are the "cowgoyles" seen on some agricultural buildings.
The April 16 Memorial is located in the center of the side of the Drillfield in front of Burruss Hall. The memorial consists of 32 Hokie Stones, one for each victim, and a stone in the center to honor all of the fallen and injured victims. On the night of April 16, 2007, students placed pieces of Hokie Stone in a semi-circle at the base of the reviewing stand overlooking the Drillfield, and this then led to the creation of the present-day memorial.