Virginia Tech breaks ground on $85M Hitt Hall

100,000-sq-ft building will house construction school, dining

Published February 3, 2022 by Katherine Schulte

Virginia Tech leaders and donors broke ground Wednesday on the university’s $85 million, 100,000-square-foot Hitt Hall, which will house the Myers-Lawson School of Construction.

The building, which has an expected completion of spring 2024, will feature general assignment classrooms and a 600-seat multivenue dining facility. The Myers-Lawson School is a collaboration between the College of Architecture and Urban Studies and the College of Engineering.

“This building is a tribute to what is possible when academia and industry collaborate to address the workforce needs of the 21st century, supported by generous friends and alumni,” Virginia Tech President Tim Sands said in a statement. “Hitt Hall will be an appropriate home for a nationally ranked and respected school that is developing the leaders and innovators who will define the industry’s future.”

The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors approved funding for the hall in August 2021. W.M. Jordan Co. is the construction manager, and the building is designed to obtain or exceed the LEED Silver certification.

The building is named in recognition of the Hitt family charitable foundation’s lead gift of $5 million. The Hitt family founded Falls Church-based Hitt Contracting Inc., which brought in $2.6 billion in 2020 revenue.

Brett Hitt and Virginia Tech alumni Century Concrete founder Preston White, John R. Lawson II of W.M. Jordan Co. and A. Ross Myers of Allan Myers Inc. committed to endow the Myers-Lawson School of Construction director’s position and name it in honor of current director Brian Kleiner and former program leader Mike Vorster.

“I appreciate how well Virginia Tech prepared me to succeed in industry, and it does an even better job today,” White said in a statement. “Preparing the talent base that companies like mine are in need of is the life blood of the future — and this new building and expansion of the Myers-Lawson School of Construction will ensure a bright future for both the construction industry and Virginia Tech.”

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