New on Grounds: Data Science Building and Contemplative Commons
UVA’s new Data Science building features a rooftop canopy of 150 steel louvers spanning the fourth-floor balcony to facilitate ventilation, airflow and sunlight control.
The School of Data Science’s new home—a four-story, 61,000-square-foot building at the corner of Emmet Street and Ivy Road—opened this spring.
The facility features four adaptive classrooms, faculty and staff offices, and a two-story central hub, according to Cooper Allen of the School of Data Science.
An interactive data sculpture, visible from every floor and from the street, hangs from a skylight at the center of the structure. It features 20 lanterns that display data through LED lights.
Hopkins Architects, VMDO Architects and the University’s Office of the Architect worked in collaboration with UVA Facilities Management on the building.
This fall, nearly 350 students are enrolled in the school, including its first class of undergraduate data science majors. In addition, nearly 700 students are pursuing minors in data science.
A few blocks down Emmet Street, adjacent to the Dell, the 57,000-square-foot Contemplative Commons was set to open with limited programming in August and full programming in January, according to Connie Kresge, chief of staff for UVA’s Contemplative Sciences Center.
The multipurpose building will serve both as the new home for the center, which was founded in 2012, and as a hub with indoor–outdoor spaces and flexible studios that can be configured as classrooms and research labs, as well as places for quiet reflection, social interaction or physical activity. The building will feature art installations, a two-story video wall, rooftop gardens and a central courtyard lined with ginkgo trees.
The central courtyard at UVA’s new Contemplative Commons
Under construction since 2021, the building was designed by Aidlin Darling Design. VMDO was the architect. Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects designed the courtyard and rooftop gardens.
