DBIA MidAtlantic has selected the Virginia Tech CID Living-Learning Community for its top honors, 2022 Project of the Year and Excellence in Architecture. Congratulations to the project team!
Virginia Tech’s Creativity and Innovation District (CID) Living-Learning Residence Center features over 30,000 sf of programmed space devoted to artistic, performance and research-based experiences that support meaningful connections between the CID, Virginia Tech, and the town of Blacksburg. Strategically located where the campus meets the town, its public gathering spaces invite visitors from the CID, campus, and town to mix, mingle and interact.
The six-story, 230,896 sf living-learning center has 596 beds including three graduate teaching assistant apartments and a resident faculty apartment. Student rooms are a mix of single, double and suite style, targeted towards Art, Architecture, Design and Construction majors. The suites, occupied by student athletes, are interspersed throughout the wings to integrate the athletes and arts populations, creating a diversity of encounters and opportunities to build community and collaborate.
The center supports three living-learning communities. Residents who are not part of one of the three LLCs have a less specialized, broader experience with access to all programs and spaces.
Dressed in Virginia Tech’s signature Hokie Stone, the center is divided into three wings connected by a central spine. Learning and community spaces are sited along this central corridor on the first and second floors. Constant activity along the central spine, flooded with natural light and a high degree of transparency, encourages cross-disciplinary interactions. Gallery space and a performing arts theater are visible and accessible to residents of Blacksburg.
Academic spaces include classrooms, an auditorium, library, visual and performing art studios, a black box theater and music practice rooms. The Maker Suite features a large assembly room plus metal, wood and welding shops. Transparent, acoustical glass systems and high, open spaces keep learning and creative enterprise on display. Multiple exterior courtyards, an outdoor classroom, glass pedestrian bridges and rooftop green spaces connect the living-learning community with the campus and the town.
The Living Learning Community draws people together in spaces where student work is on display creating discussion, curiosity, and debate. Flexible spaces can be used to study individually or in groups, to hold meetings, to cook meals, to make and create, and to hold spontaneous music sessions.
The environment is intentionally inclusive, providing choreographed “chance-encounters” that create new ideas, new friendships, and sometimes change lives.
Photographs ©Keith Isaacs Photo LLC
