Skanska tops off VSU academic commons building

New York-based development and construction firm Skanska USA held a topping-out ceremony this week for the $120 million Alfred W. Harris Academic Commons building being built at Virginia State University.

The 175,000-square-foot building replaces VSU’s Harris Hall and Daniel Gymnasium and consolidates its College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Education into one complex. It will be the largest building ever constructed on VSU’s Petersburg-area campus in Ettrick.

The topping-out ceremony marks the milestone of 800 tons of steel being installed, along with other construction milestones including:

• 700 cubic yards of concrete foundations;
• 5,766 square feet of concrete block foundations;
• 22 castellated beams, each 106 feet long;
• 35,719 square feet of brick veneer;
• 23,527 square feet of metal panels;
• and 16,600 square feet of 12-inch glazed concrete blocks around the pool.

The project started in January and will be completed in 2025. The three-story facility will have academic classrooms, media labs, broadcast production labs, multipurpose auditoriums, art and design department ceramic labs and studios, a black box theater and scene shop, distance learning technologies, faculty offices and support space. It will also have an elevated running track, six basketball courts and a natatorium with a six-lane, 25-yard competition swimming pool and diving boards.