Virginia Tech’s Academic Building One offers a glimpse of what a technology-focused higher education facility can look like when learning, research, sustainability, and student experience are planned together. Designed by SmithGroup, the 11-story, 300,000-square-foot building opened in Alexandria, Va., in 2025 and serves graduate programs in computer science, computer engineering, business, and other disciplines.

The video takes viewers inside a building designed around flexibility and collaboration, with classrooms, research and testing labs, maker spaces, 32 huddle rooms, a cyber-physical systems lab, and even a two-story drone testing cage. The facility also incorporates an unusually ambitious sustainability strategy, including building-integrated photovoltaics, passive shading, high-performance mechanical systems, and an all-electric design apart from emergency generators. For school and university facilities professionals, it’s an interesting look at how emerging technologies, energy performance, and changing approaches to teaching and research are shaping the next generation of academic buildings.