Plans to remake the northwest corner of Emmet Street and Ivy Road into a key connection between Central Grounds and North Grounds are moving forward. In September, a Board of Visitors committee reviewed drawings for the new School of Data Science and a hotel and conference center that are planned for the property. A BOV vote on the design is scheduled for December.

Plans call for a four-story, 60,000-square-foot School of Data Science with classrooms and research areas, along with public spaces and an outdoor terrace with views of Central Grounds, said Alice Raucher, University architect. It could open in 2023.

The 223,000-square-foot hotel and conference center will sit along the southwest corner of the existing Emmet-Ivy parking garage. It will include a 215-room hotel and more than 28,000 square feet of conference center space and could be open in 2024.

“The heart and soul will always be the Lawn and the Rotunda,” Raucher said. “But this parcel, physically and geographically, is the center between North and Central Grounds. To develop this in such a way that there are programs there and reason to be there and the walk is pleasant is really going to transform the whole, entire Grounds.”