By Albert Raboteau
Virginia Tech’s Upper Quad will soon feature a showcase building for the Corps of Cadets.
Demolition has started to pave the way for the Corps Leadership and Military Science Building, a project many years in the making, which has drawn support from numerous generous corps alumni.
The three-story, 75,000-gross-square-foot building is expected to be complete in 2023. It will bring together the corps staff and the university’s ROTC programs now dispersed across several locations and will include custom space for the Corps Museum.
The building will also be a hub for the university’s Integrated Security Education and Research Center, a new facility designed to blend science, technology, policy, and ethics across homeland security, national security, and cybersecurity domains.
At its June meeting, the university’s Board of Visitors approved the naming of nearly 30 spaces within the building for donors whose generosity has helped to bring this project to fruition.
I can think of no other building where every single element has a tie to an alumnus or friend of the corps,” said Maj. Gen. Randal Fullhart, commandant of cadets. “When we say, ‘It wouldn’t be here except for all of you,’ it is really, really true. And we are most grateful.”
A virtual groundbreaking ceremony for the building took place on June 22, featuring Fullhart and other university leaders.