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A new academic building at Virginia Tech has reached a critical construction milestone.
The university, together with the contractor Skanska, passed Mitchell Hallwhich will become the largest engineering school building on campus, the contractor announced Tuesday. The total construction cost of the project is $292 million, Virginia Tech director of facilities communications Meghan Marsh told Construction Dive via email.
Skanska signed an initial contract work on the hall in May 2024 for $53 million, and construction began that spring. The firm inked a $240 million supplemental contract on the project in June 2025.
The five-story, 285,500-square-foot facility replaces the former Randolph Hall, which the university demolished in 2024according to local NBC 10 News affiliate. The new Mitchell Hall adds more than 70% more gross square feet at the same location, according to Skanska.
The room is also built around the Virginia Tech Stability Wind Tunnelone of the largest university-owned wind tunnels in the country, according to the press release. The school uses it for academic research projects and testing industrial applications.
Once completed, Mitchell Hall will contain, according to the university project page:
- Approximately 54,000 assignable square meters of classrooms and instructional laboratories.
- Approximately 56,000 assignable square feet of research labs.
- Approximately 55,000 assignable square feet of shared office space for faculty, staff and students.
The project team used 18,321 cubic yards of concrete and 2,600 tons of reinforcing steel, according to Skanska. The new hall is expected to be completed in the winter of 2028.
Skanska has previously worked on Virginia Tech campuses. Over the past six years, the contractor delivered one undergraduate science laboratory building in Blacksburg, Virginia and completed the Addition to the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in Roanoke, Virginia.
The builder’s other higher education clients include the University of Virginia, where it is located surpassed a $350 million biotech facility in Charlottesville in October. Then, in March, Skanska secured a contract to build one $165 million biology building at Texas A&M University in College Station.
