Radford University to build new $52.8 million academic facility

Radford University has received authorization from the state to begin construction on a $52.8 million, 143,600-square-foot academic facility that will serve as the new home to the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences (CHBS).

“This new building will be an ideal opportunity to consolidate the majority of the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences, our largest college, into a single building and to get the college’s departments out of buildings not ideally suited for their purpose and in some cases, temporary, inadequate or too widely dispersed,” Radford’s President Penelope W.  Kyle said in a statement.

The new building will provide classrooms, offices, laboratories and student/faculty collaborative space. There will also be a moot courtroom, television studio, forensic laboratory and an emergency operations training center.  The project will consolidate most of the college’s departments, now located among seven locations across campus.  Among the departments that will move to the new building are: communications, criminal justice, psychology, sociology, political science, English, foreign language, history, philosophy and religious studies. It will be the largest academic building on Radford’s campus.

Construction is expected to begin this spring, with completion projected for 2016. Moseley Architects of Virginia Beach is designing the facility. S.B. Ballard, also of Virginia Beach, will serve as the construction management firm.

Since 2005, Radford University has secured approval and funding for nearly $300 million in capital projects, including new construction and renovation. In 2008, Radford opened the Covington Center for Visual and Performing Arts. That was followed by the opening of a 110,000-square-foot, $44 million building for the College of Business and Economics in fall of 2012. The university also has renovated several residence halls, the campus’ largest dining facility and built the Hurlburt Student Center.  Current construction projects include a 110,000-square-foot, $32 million Student Fitness and Wellness Center, slated to open this fall, and a 114,000-square-foot, $49.5 million Center for the Sciences, slated to open in 2015.