The University of Virginia and Virginia Tech are two institutions close to the hearts of the many alumni, parents, students, or student hopefuls in our region. Northern Virginia Magazine takes a look at their history as both rivals and partners, and shows you how they stack up.
The University of Virginia is no stranger to Northern Virginia. Its Darden DC Metro campus in Rosslyn opened in 2018, before Amazon’s ballyhooed decision to build HQ2 in the commonwealth. The school’s tactical expansion continued in 2021 with UVA|NOVA.
And that’s not the end of it, according to Greg Fairchild, UVA|NOVA’s inaugural dean and CEO.
“This was already a technology center in the making that already had problems with supply of workers to do the tech work,” Fairchild says, adding that “it was a bit of an endorsement” to get here before Amazon and Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus.
As Fairchild sees it, the mission for all Virginia schools is to make the region stronger. The answer lies not only in education, but also in asking what it means to be a knowledgeable citizen and partaking in society’s greater discussion.
“Being here puts us in the midst of the discourse. The discourse that’s going on about how this nation and — yes, I’m going to be highfalutin — the world thinks about what’s going to happen next,” he says.
“We’ve always done that in Charlottesville. But how wonderful it is that we can now begin to have those discussions here because the people who are the thought leaders around those ideas are here,” Fairchild says.
UVA’s NoVA locations are prime real estate for local students: Fairchild says overall UVA gets more applications from Northern Virginia and DC than from anywhere else. And UVA’s Fairfax facility, set to open in 2025, will show more “cross-fertilization” between Charlottesville and Northern Virginia.
“We should think about a university as a full suite of learning, rather than a single area where we know there’s demand for employment. We take seriously being an institution of choice for employers, but that’s not our only mission, and it’s not the only thing we’re here to do,” he says.
With its Rosslyn location, UVA’s educational and research opportunities can be connected to the Department of Defense, tech firms, and DC, while its Fairfax location can be more focused on science, medicine, health, engineering, and real estate.
Fairchild says he sees UVA|NOVA as an educational space and community where students of many different disciplines come together. But he can’t give away all the university’s plans. Not yet.
“I can’t say more than that now about what could happen. But I will tell you that in the span of four years, we’ve gone from being a part of that facility in Falls Church to 100,000 square feet of new space in two urban settings. And I think you might find that there’ll be more to come.”
Feature image of UVA|NOVA buildings by Sam Levitan, courtesy University of Virginia
- UVA and Virginia Tech: How the Rivals are Stronger Together
- For UVA and Virginia Tech, Friendly Rivalry Is the Name of the Game
- How Virginia Tech Aims to Drive Innovation with its NoVA Campus
- Interns’ Guide to Campus Life at UVA and Virginia Tech
- UVA and Virginia Tech’s Presidents Share Their Thoughts on Challenges and the Future
- Explore Charlottesville, the Charming Area Surrounding UVA
- Discover the Beauty of Blacksburg, Virginia Tech’s College Town
This story originally ran in our August issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
