Board committee OK's renovations, additions

Train & Spencer Architects

Train & Spencer Architects A schematic drawing of the Law School's proposed new Student and Faculty Center, as seen from Spies Garden.

By Dan Heuchert

A new home for the art history program and new dining space for the School of Law were among the projects to get the thumb's up from the Board of Visitors' Buildings and Grounds Committee, which met Nov. 23.

The panel also approved additions to the White Burkett Miller Center of Public Affairs and the facility that houses the National Radio Astronomy Observatory headquarters.

Fayerweather Hall, originally constructed on Carr's Hill as a Victorian-style gymnasium and later home to the School of Architecture and then the studio art program, will go through yet another incarnation under a state-funded, $5 million renovation. "Essentially, everything's coming out of it and we're rebuilding it," said Samuel A. "Pete" Anderson, the University's architect.

The project will involve 18,300 square feet of renovation, 700 square feet of new construction on the west side, and the demolition of a 3,200-square-foot "temporary" metal structure that has been in service for decades.

Once completed, the building will be devoted to the art history program. The studio art program will move to as-yet-undetermined temporary quarters until a new building can be built for it. Construction on Fayerweather may begin as early as next summer.

The budget for the Fayerweather project could increase before then if some board members' ideas are added. Committee chair Albert H. Small and board member Benjamin P.A. Warthen expressed interest in hearkening to the building's original Victorian exterior by removing a façade from the section of the building facing Rugby Road, rebuilding a cupola near the front of the building and reconstructing the intricate friezes above the main entrance. The committee approved the project, pending cost estimates for the additional work, which would have to be paid for with private funds.

The Law School's new dining facility will address two needs, said acting dean John C. Jeffries: it will replace the aging and "barely adequate" Café North, favored by students, and also fill the void left by the closing of the Darden School's Sponsor's Hall dining room, used by Law faculty. The privately financed, $6 million facility will provide space for students and professors to mingle, he said.

The committee gave tentative approval to the schematic drawings, which call for the demolition of Café North, 18,000 square feet of new construction and 9,000 square feet of renovations around Hunton & Williams Hall. The board will get one more look at the plans before the project is sent out to bid. University officials hope to begin construction in late 2000.

The committee also approved schematic drawings of the $7.5 million Miller Center addition and renovation, which will provide additional office, small conference room and library space.

The building dates to 1855 and came into the University's possession in 1963. In 1991, the J. Wilson Newman Pavilion was built as a west wing. The proposed project, to be privately funded, would balance that expansion with a 12,500-square-foot addition to the east, and also renovate 18,300 square feet of the existing structure.

The committee gave final approval to a $7.4 million, 31,000-square-foot addition to the NRAO building at the base of Observatory Hill. The project will be funded with bonds, to be repaid from the NRAO's 20-year lease. The space will allow the NRAO to consolidate its staff into one building and house a new research effort.

Other business

• In an earlier meeting Nov. 17, the Board of Visitors approved a 4 percent raise for Medical Center employees after hearing that the operating margin was 3.9 percent for the first quarter of the fiscal year 1999-2000.
• The board gave President John T. Casteen III a "positive evaluation" for his job performance and a 6.25 percent salary increase, with a $15,000 bonus, at its executive committee meeting Nov. 17.
  The state portion of Casteen's salary will go up to $142,221, effective Nov. 25, with a 5 percent bonus of $6,693. The privately funded portion of his salary will be $177,212 and the bonus $8,339. He also will get deferred compensation worth $45,000.
• L. Jay Lemons, the chancellor of the University's College at Wise, will also receive a 6.25 percent raise, totalling $106,165 in state salary, with a bonus of nearly $5,000, and in private funds, an additional $53,551 and $2,520 bonus.