Digging It

Mason breaks ground on three new buildings

Construction has begun on the Volgenau School of Information Technology and Engineering’s state-of-the-art, 180,000-square-foot research and academic building, currently known as Academic VI. In keeping with Mason’s commitment to sustainability, the building is one of the university’s first buildings designed to meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver Standard. The second-largest building on the Fairfax Campus, it will be unlike any other in Virginia’s public university system in that 20,000 square feet will be available as leased office space to businesses, an arrangement that will provide students and faculty with opportunities to work with area companies and participate in cutting-edge, real-world research.

When completed in summer 2009, Mason’s Biomedical Research Laboratory, adjacent to the Prince William Campus, will contain laboratories where Mason researchers will develop and test the next generation of vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics to protect citizens against biological terrorism and infectious diseases. The new biosafety level 3 facility is one of 13 regional biocontainment laboratories being built nationwide with funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. To construct the laboratory, Mason was awarded a $25 million grant in 2005.

The new three-story building that will house studio instructional areas for the Department of Art and Visual Technology in the College of Visual and Performing Arts on the Fairfax Campus was designed by Ayres Saint Gross, a Baltimore-based architecture firm, and has already won an award. The 88,000-square-foot building received design honors with a top award in new campus designs from the Baltimore Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The department’s new home will expand educational program opportunities in advanced technology, offer state-of-the-art studio facilities, expand space for gallery and lecture halls, and support a new community of graduate studio spaces.