It’s the end of August in Blacksburg, Va. The parking lot in front of Ambler Johnston Hall is teeming with over-eager freshman and their parents. They unload the mini-fridge and the Twin XL bedding and brace for the walk up five flights in a hot, stuffy stairwell. They reach the overwhelmingly brown room, and Mom says, trying to sound optimistic, “Well honey, I guess we can make this look less like a cave. Good thing we bought the extra light and the bright bedding!”

Virginia Tech, best known for being the home of crazed football fanatics is also home to some of the largest dormitories on the east coast. The first in line to get a major renovation is the Ambler Johnston Complex, which houses about 1,200 first-year students. With this renovation, the university is trying to redefine the on-campus culture, from a coal hungry institution to a more eco-responsible one. But the road from dormitory to residence hall is long and winding.

Currently, the monumental style building, opened in 1969, is a concrete monster, which it seems, was originally designed to consume as much energy as possible, while making students feel as if their home is nothing more than a 12-foot by 14-foot cube with two beds and a closet. The built-in wardrobes severely limit room configurations and take up a quarter of each room’s floor space. The common areas are dull and underutilized, and most are not even wheelchair accessible. Not only does the university want to fix these problems with the renovation, its aim is to make Ambler Johnston LEED Silver certified, while creating an exciting destination for all students.

To actualize these goals, Virginia Tech Student Programs engaged engineering and architecture firm Clark and Nexsen, whose Charlotte, N.C., office specializes in designing ultra-efficient residence halls and academic buildings for colleges and universities across the southeast.  For Project Architect Tom Keeling, a Virginia Tech graduate of the School of Architecture in 1999, this renovation is especially significant. He also lived in a building similar to Ambler Johnston. Keeling says that “The possibility of transformation within this out-of-date institutional building to one that will answer to student’s needs today, instead of the administration’s needs forty years ago,” is what excites him and his team most about the project.

The Design
The renovation will take place in two phases over three years so that half of the building will always be habitable for students. The renovation schedule of this building must coordinate with the finishing of two new buildings, which are also LEED Silver certified, that are going to house displaced students. To achieve the LEED Silver certification and to remain within the budget for time and money, the design team has chosen to salvage the existing building shell. The design team met the first challenge when trying to make the buildings more energy efficient. The building’s structure is formed out of 10 inches of solid concrete and is not insulated. Because space is so tight in the building they must chip away 3 inches or 4 inches of the inner shell of the building to fit insulation that will work towards making the building more energy efficient. The exterior of the building will remain the same with the exception of new windows.

The interior of the building is where most of the radical changes will take place. Since the exterior of the building is so strong, the designers decided that a modern approach to light materials and nature would work best. A three-story atrium will take the place of a mouse-hole like mailroom and block of offices. It will feature a large fitness room enclosed 3form. The eco-resin material can be used for any type of room divider, walls or doors and has even been used in some theaters for their acoustical needs. What is unique about this product is that through its Resin Encapsulation Technology, it can be translucent or opaque and can contain just about anything including bamboo, custom images or textures. The atrium will also house a theater-style media room, a conference room for two hundred people, a resource center for the university’s Resident Advisors, and a lounge that floats over the first floor.

Because of the building’s monumental design, it has been difficult to relate the building’s exterior to its interior. The design team has decided to utilize the building’s position on the compass — 15 degrees — and has incorporated the angle into almost every aspect of the atrium design. The team has also brought more daylight into the building by opening up all of the stairwells by taking down all of the walls surrounding them.

Another item on the university’s wish list is individual heating and cooling controls in each room. This will be more efficient than the only form of climate control that is currently available to residents — opening or closing a window. Vertical Fan Coil Units will give each room control of the temperature, just another way to help residents feel at home.

When the new Ambler Johnston Complex is completed it will house 1,195 undergraduates in smaller, more manageable communities of about 30-45, including 160 suite-style beds, compared to the communities of 60 students that are currently in the building. The entire building will be accessible to wheelchairs and students will have access to amenities such as a top-of-the-line fitness room, library, day spa, game room, community kitchen, laundry facilities, study lounges and technology center.

For all involved, completion of this project will be fulfilling and exciting. For Tom Keeling, he feels it will set the tone, not only for the upcoming renovations of other similar residence halls on campus, but also for the rest of the collegiate world. Keeling hopes that this project will “Show what is possible with color, materials, and light. How to open up people’s, especially administrators minds, to the possibilities of designing a building that can be both earth and student friendly.”