VCU’s Six-Year Capital plan on track

Cameron Chichester
Contributing Writer

As the metal construction fences come down with the completion of the Grace Street Apartments South complex, bulldozers have already broken ground across the street on Grace Street Apartments North.

A couple of blocks away, the steel beams of the new University Learning Center still cast a shadow over Floyd Avenue. Soon, the caution tape will be removed on the Gilmer Street additions to the Broad and Belvidere Apartments.

VCU’s construction boom is driving forward school plans, including the Quest for Distinction and the Capital Plan, to build the university’s profile.

Biology instructor Mary Monroe has seen the university’s transformation firsthand. She has lived in the Fan District since 1967 and attended VCU’s teacher’s certificate program in the 1970s.

Monroe remembers when the biology building was where Shafer Court Dining Center now stands and the VCU bookstore was in the basement of the Hibbs Building.

The current construction projects are part of a six-year capital plan that VCU began in 2012. The university is in the beginning stages of its efforts to “continue beautification and streetscapes development creating a sense of campus,” according to VCU’s Six-Year Capital Plan.

The building spree is intended to create a thriving environment and a sense of community for VCU, which with around 32,000 students is the second largest university in Virginia behind George Mason’s student body of about 33,000.

The six-year plan contains almost 35 projects. Students will notice many of them breaking ground or opening their doors this fall.

Brian Ohlinger, associate vice president of VCU Facilities Management, said the capital projects will not only benefit VCU students but also boost development of downtown Richmond. “VCU wants to be a part of Richmond,” he said.