Global development and construction firm Skanska announces the topping out at Virginia State University’s (VSU) Alfred W. Harris Academic Commons facility, the largest building ever constructed on the VSU campus. The new 175,000-square-foot building will replace Harris Hall and Daniel Gymnasium, consolidating the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Education into one cutting-edge complex.
“Skanska takes great pride in constructing the Academic Commons at Virginia State University, adding to the rich and storied history of the academic institution,” said Mark Balling, executive vice president responsible for Skanska’s North Carolina and Virginia building operations. “We are thrilled to have reached this milestone safely and look forward to delivering an outstanding facility that will serve the students, faculty and staff at VSU for generations to come.”
The topping out ceremony honors the construction team’s hard work and signals a time of celebration for the progress made on a project to date. The effort to achieve this milestone at VSU included installing:
- 800 tons of steel
- 700 cubic yards of concrete foundations
- 5,766-SF of concrete block foundations
- 22 castellated beams, each 106 feet long
- 35,719-SF of brick veneer
- 23,527-SF of metal panels
- 16,600-SF of 12-inch glazed CMU concrete blocks around pool
The three-story, state-of-the-art facility will house academic classrooms, media laboratories, broadcast production labs, multipurpose auditoriums, art and design department ceramics labs and studios, a black box theatre and scene shop, distance learning technologies and faculty offices and support space. Additionally, it will include an elevated running track, six basketball courts and a natatorium complete with a six-lane, 25-yard competition pool as well as one meter and three-meter diving boards.
The building is named for Alfred W. Harris who sponsored a bill in 1882 to charter Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute which later became Virginia State College.
Construction began January 2023 and will be completed in 2025.
Operating from a regional headquarters in Durham, Skanska USA has completed nearly $2.9 billion worth of work in North Carolina and Virginia over the past 10 years and currently has more than $640 million of work in progress in the two states.
About Skanska
Skanska uses knowledge & foresight to shape the way people live, work, and connect. More than 135 years in the making, we’re one of the world’s largest development and construction companies. We operate in select markets throughout the Nordics, Europe and the United States. Skanska in the U.S. is headquartered in New York City with 29 offices around the country. In 2022, construction in the U.S. generated $6.9 billion in revenue, and as a developer in the U.S., Skanska has invested a total of $3.5 billion in commercial and multi-family projects. Together with our customers and the collective expertise of our 6,500 teammates in the U.S. and 28,000 globally, we create innovative and sustainable solutions that support healthy living beyond our lifetime.
