The University of Virginia has broken ground on a facility for a new data science school on its Charlottesville campus.
The School of Data Science will sit on a 14-acre campus area that also will have a hotel and conference center, a performing arts center and other academic buildings, the university says in a news release.
The site will have an amphitheater and a retention pond between the building’s façade and the street. The four-story, 61,000-square-foot facility will include four “adaptive classrooms” with technology to enhance the learning process, and faculty offices, as well as meeting and research areas.
The building is being designed with sustainable features. A green roof will mitigate the heat gain from a south-facing roof, and offices will have windows that open to increase ventilation.
The building's location will create an anchor for the campus and become the geographic center of the university. The corridor also will host an Institute of Democracy.
The School of Data Science will focus on subjects such as machine learning, data acquisition, analytics and visualization, while interacting with disciplines such as medicine, business, law and engineering.
A $120 million endowment from Merrill and Jaffray Woodriff through its Quantitative Foundation is helping to pay for the new facility.
Hopkins Architects and VMDO Architects designed the facility, and the contractor is Gilbane Building Company.
The school is slated to open in spring 2024.
