PVCC unveils design of Kluge-Moses Science Building

In about two weeks, Piedmont Virginia Community College will know which construction firm will start building the Kluge-Moses Science Building.

The college last month received interest from 27 construction firms and subcontractors interested in building the structure. The project is estimated to cost $11.4 million and take 14 months to build.

Details of the design and the timetable for its construction were revealed Wednesday evening during a PVCC College Board meeting.

So many interested businesses showed up last month to the pre-bid conference that the meeting had to be moved to an auditorium, said William Jackameit, PVCC vice president for finance and administrative services.

“We should get a great bid for this project and go forward with this,” Jackameit said.

The two-story building will be about 34,000 square feet and be constructed near the college’s second parking lot. Faculty and administrators will inhabit a portion of the building made of metal siding. A masonry portion of the structure will house science labs, a few classrooms and some space for Old Dominion University.

The university is paying $800,000 toward the building’s construction, Jackameit said. The rest of the money will come from the state’s general fund or through state financing.

The science building is named after Patricia Kluge and William J. Moses, who run Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard. The pair, who helped start PVCC’s viticulture and enology program, previously donated $1.2 million to support health and science courses.

Students will enter the main portion of the science building on the second floor through a pedestrian walkway. Kathy Hudson, the college’s interim vice president for instruction and student services, said laboratory space for the natural sciences will inhabit most of the floor. Labs for chemistry, gross anatomy, biology, anatomy and physiology and a shared microbiology/bio tech lab will be housed there. A 50-seat classroom also is planned for the floor.

The ground floor will have lab space for nursing and emergency medical services. Old Dominion will take up about half of the hallway on this health sciences floor.

A new building will allow the college to expand some of its programs and make space for radiography tech and sonography, two new programs that Hudson said the college is hoping to offer.

The features of the sciences building also will give students a better view of their careers.

“The emergency medical services lab will have a built-in ambulance box,” Hudson said. “It’s specially designed to open on one side so the rest of the students can see. It’s just like an ambulance inside.”

It will be at least a year before students will get that experience. PVCC is planning to break ground on the project during a ceremony at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 15 and complete construction on the building and traffic roundabout on Dec. 15, 2009.

“That is a very aggressive schedule,” Jackameit said. “We will see if we can meet that.”

Jackameit said the college will launch a Web site in the next few weeks with pictures and a Web cam so visitors can watch the construction.