Creativity and Innovation District

About

The new Creativity and Innovation District (CID) on the eastern edge of campus will cultivate a community of creation and innovation. The district will make the most of existing programs and facilities already in the area, including:

Several of the buildings will retain their traditional functions while providing additional spaces that foster creativity and innovation. The Media Building and the Media Building Annex will be allocated to the district. University Relations personnel in those buildings are relocating to the University Gateway Center to accommodate the expansion.

Creativity and Innovation District Residence Hall Renderings

Interior rendering of a performance space in CID

Interior rendering of a lounge with students hanging out

Interior rendering of a maker space in the CID project. Students are milling around working on projects.

Residence Hall and Living-Learning Communities

Creativity and Innovation District: Living-Learning Program at Virginia Tech

Anchoring the initial development of the district is a 225,000 gross-square-foot residential building. It will be located next to the Graduate Life Center at Donaldson Brown between Kent and Otey streets.

The CID residence hall will offer housing for approximately 600 students and a wide variety of academic, social, research, and collaboration spaces. The residence hall is intended for students enmeshed in the CID and designed around three living-learning communities (LLCs) for the arts and entrepreneurship ⁠— while also weaving in housing for varsity student-athletes.

The three LLCs, Studio 72, Innovate, and Rhizome, will give students the chance to specialize on a particular theme. Additionally, students can attend programming and events through the Faculty Principal, Dr. Tim Baird, as well as have access to the physical amenities located in the building. The CID residence hall project is anticipated to be completed in summer 2021.

Quick Links

CID Time Lapse Camera

LATEST TRAFFIC IMPACTS

Living-Learning Programs

Capital Projects at Virginia Tech

Creation and Design

Professor Thanassis Rikakis

Thanassis Rikakis, D.M.A. — Professor Thanassis Rikakis

The district was conceived by Thanassis Rikakis, professor of bioengineering and performing arts and former provost, as a geographic extension of President Tim Sands’ Beyond Boundaries vision — specifically the concept of students and faculty from a variety of backgrounds living and working together in a shared community.

Rikakis desired to combine areas of strength for Virginia Tech so that individuals working across disciplines can come together and create. Additionally, Rikakis wanted the district in Blacksburg to engage with Virginia Tech’s outposts in Roanoke and Northern Virginia.

Visual openness, intentional pedestrian connections, and a variety of landscape spaces will connect the building and landscape to the larger CID district and its anticipated CID Green. The building’s massing and architecture will embed the building’s character firmly within the recognizable language unique to the Virginia Tech campus.