The CityCampus Biotechnology Center on Preston Avenue, the new tenant of the historic Coca-Cola Bottling Company building, may become a catalyst for the creation of an “urban neighborhood,” according to its owners.
The vision for the space is one of a center for innovation and entrepreneurship, said Martin Chapman, co-owner along with Madeleine Watkins and President of Indoor Biotechnologies, Inc. He added that being “a beacon for historic rehabilitation” was just as important.
"The development of this space is really predicated on the fact that functional wet lab space is really not available pretty much anywhere in the state of Virginia," said Chapman. "So, we think we are fulfilling a huge unmet need for this kind of activity."
The old Coca-Cola Bottling Company building is the largest art deco structure in the city, and, at almost 40,000 square feet, it was deemed the perfect stage for the creation of a biotechnology hub close to Downtown Charlottesville with Indoor Biotechnologies as its anchor tenant.
More after the photos.
Rendering: the building’s entrance with broad staircase.
Rendering: the courtyard with a translucent roof.
According to Chapman, who presented the vision at City Space this afternoon to an audience of elected officials, scientists, entrepreneurs and architects, CityCampus will provide a "stimulus for economic development" with the estimated creation of 75 to 80 jobs in the project’s first phase and more than 150 total when the second phase is completed.
In the first phase, the building will undergo a complete rehab, under the watchful eye of UVA Professor Daniel Bluestone, Director of the Historic Preservation Program, to create wet lab and office space in addition to an open office area, much like Donwtown’s Open Space. The second phase includes the construction of a new building in the adjacent parking lot, adding 30,000 square feet.
The design, by architects UVA Professor William Sherman and Willard Scribner of SMBW Architects, will include a new entrance highlighted by a large-scale staircase and a translucent roof overlooking the courtyard. One of the existing loading and trucking docks will be the new home of an indoor coffee shop.
Sherman, founder of OpenGrounds, an upcoming collaborative and interdisciplinary space at UVA, said that CityCampus will “create the capacity for many possible futures” for the building and establish a culture that values connections between disciplines, in line with the University’s new administration’s goal of creating a "more fluid ecosystem across the University, between external partners," said Sherman.
The idea is to have CityCampus open to the community for events and arts exhibitions. Chapman also mentioned that since the center will include incubator space for new and rising technologies, he envisions weekly seminars with invited or local speakers to fulfill that purpose.
"We forsee this not as a sort of fortress biotech research park," said Chapman. "We want this to be an open space so that we can have events going on, art projects going on, film projects going on and you’ll see that there will be plenty of space that we can make that kind of thing happen."
In terms of green features, Scribner said the building will be sustainable “in every way,” striving for a minimum of LEED silver.
The timeline for the project is contingent upon securing financing. Although Chapman said that one of the advantages for investors in CityCampus are state and federal tax credits, he estimates the construction to begin in October of 2012, after the architectural design and engineering are complete.