The Moss Arts Center—named in honor of the landscape painter Patricia Buckley Moss—is the ninth building on Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus to be LEED certified, and its fourth LEED Gold. Ninety-six percent of construction waste was diverted from landfills. Sixty percent of the wood products used were Forest Stewardship Council–certified. Water use was reduced 40%. The complex was incorporated into the rolling hillside to diminish its overall mass.
Shultz Hall, an old dining facility, was gutted and converted into a new arts center outfitted with performance, research, production, and education spaces. Two new additions, totaling 72,550 sf, encompass the 1,274-seat Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre and the Collaborative Performance Lab, known as “The Cube.”
The Cube, originally designed as a four-story black box theater, evolved into a research space with performance, rehearsal, and audience areas surrounded by technical galleries. A motion-capture system and a sophisticated array of 150-plus speakers let researchers create virtual environments, explore 3D renderings of large objects, and work on advanced acoustical research.
The renovated Schulz Hall’s low-velocity ductwork and underfloor air distribution system control noise. The theater is within the Street and Davis Performance Hall, which features an expansive structural glass and aluminum curtain wall system.
The Fife Theatre’s HVAC system includes hundreds of diffuser cores located in the concrete slab beneath the theater seating. Holder Construction developed a Revit model to communicate the diffuser core layout accurately to subcontractors, to reduce interference among the trades.
The Moss Arts Center also houses the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology, a research enterprise focused on the intersection of science, engineering, arts, and design.
PROJECT SUMMARY
BRONZE AWARD
Moss Arts Center, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, Va.
BUILDING TEAM
Submitting firm: STV (executive architect,MEP, SE, CM)
Owner/developer: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Signature design architect, interior design, landscape design: Snøhetta
Civil engineer: Thompson and Litton
Acoustic, performance sound, A/V: Arup
Theater design: Theatre Projects
Lighting design: Tillotson
Cost consultant: Davis Langdon
Hazardous materials survey: ECS Mid Atlantic
Third-party construction supervision: MBP
General contractor: Holder Corporation
GENERAL INFORMATION
Project size: 150,000 sf
Construction cost: $95 million
Construction period: September 2010 to January 2014
Delivery method: Contractor GMP
Related Stories
Building Team Awards | May 31, 2016
Gonzaga's new student center is a bustling social hub
Retail mall features, comfortable furniture, and floor-to-ceiling glass add vibrancy to the new John J. Hemmingson Center.
Building Team Awards | May 27, 2016
Big police academy trains thousands of New York's finest
The Police Training Academy in Queens, N.Y., consists of a 480,000-sf academic/administration building and a 240,000-sf physical training facility, linked by an aerial pedestrian bridge.
Building Team Awards | May 26, 2016
Cimpress office complex built during historically brutal Massachusetts winter
Lean construction techniques were used to build 275 Wyman Street during a winter that brought more than 100 inches of snow to suburban Boston.
Building Team Awards | May 25, 2016
New health center campus provides affordable care for thousands of Northern Californians
The 38,000-sf, two-level John & Susan Sobrato Campus in Palo Alto is expected to serve 25,000 patients a year by the end of the decade.
Building Team Awards | May 24, 2016
Los Angeles bus depot squeezes the most from a tight site
The Building Team for the MTA Division 13 Bus Operations and Maintenance Facility fit 12 acres’ worth of programming in a multi-level structure on a 4.8-acre site.
Building Team Awards | May 23, 2016
'Greenest ballpark' proves a winner for St. Paul Saints
Solar arrays, a public art courtyard, and a picnic-friendly “park within a park" make the 7,210-seat CHS Field the first ballpark to meet Minnesota sustainable building standards.
Building Team Awards | May 20, 2016
Pittsburgh's Tower at PNC Plaza raises the bar on high-rise greenness
The Building Team designed the 800,000-sf tower to use 50% less energy than a comparable building. A 1,200-sf mockup allowed the team to test for efficiency, functionality, and potential impact on the building’s occupants.
Building Team Awards | May 19, 2016
Chinatown library unites and serves two emerging Chicago neighborhoods
The 16,000-sf, pebble-shaped Chinatown Branch Library was built at the intersection of new and old Chinatown neighborhoods. The goal is for the building to unite the communities and serve as a catalyst for the developing area.
Building Team Awards | May 19, 2016
NYC subway station lights the way for 300,000 riders a day
Fulton Center, which handles 85% of the riders coming to Lower Manhattan, is like no other station in the city’s vast underground transit web—and that’s a good thing.
Building Team Awards | May 16, 2016
Upstate New York performing arts center revives once-toxic lakefront site
Early coordination, prefabrication, and judicious value engineering contributed to the accelerated completion of the Onondaga Lakeview Ampitheater, a Upstate New York design-build project.
