Going up
Luxury condos, research centers and innovative museums mark a busy year for construction

by Paula C. Squires
Virginia Business
October 2006

The saws were buzzing across Virginia last year. “There was lots of construction in the crescent, stretching from Hampton Roads to Richmond and Washington,” says Steve Vermillion, CEO of the Associated General Contractors of Virginia. Hotels, mixed-use centers, offices, condominiums, hospital and business expansions, research centers and large high school construction projects went up in response to conditions that sparked growth.

Preparations for the 400th anniversary of Jamestown in 2007 continued to fuel some of the growth, says Vermillion, along with interest rates that remained reasonable for a sustained period before the recent uptick. “Overall business conditions were good. What we’re seeing are good solid projects, not a lot of speculative stuff.”

Last year was also the year of the museum. Several new ones are taking shape in Virginia and established ones continue with ongoing expansions. When architects pay homage to an ideal as lofty as art, the result is frequently a creative design. In Roanoke, for instance, at what will be the new home for the Art Museum of Western Virginia, architect Randall Stout has designed a contemporary monument that reflects the area’s mountain heritage. At the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, the building is evocative of the famous Iwo Jima statue.

These projects and others are highlighted in a series of profiles. In this year’s annual look at the state’s largest construction projects, Virginia Business does not include ones from road-building. There’s not a lot of road construction in Virginia at this time. Plus, these projects represent different challenges, so we will return to them later.

In the meantime, we hope readers enjoy our focus on the innovative and significant projects expected to have major impacts in their regions in terms of architecture, tourism and economic development. As far as trends, two major ones emerged: More projects are being built as public/private ventures and more buildings are “going green,” with features included in their design that will sustain the environment.