Virginia Tech, Torgersen Hall—Advanced Communications & Information Technology Center

Torgersen Hall is Virginia Tech’s Advanced Communications & Information Technology Center. The building’s program called for a broad array of spaces designed to aid the development and evaluation of new technologies for research, teaching and learning. The entire facility was planned to facilitate the use and distribution of all types of digital media, redefining the traditional concept of a university library.
Inside the three-story building, a variety of classrooms designed as testing grounds can be reconfigured easily to study new hardware, software and teaching methods. Observation rooms provide views of classroom activities and double as control rooms during lecture broadcasts and distance-education demonstrations. Public spaces function as technology- and media-enabled “study courts” that double as pre-function areas for a 300-seat auditorium. A long electronic reading room occupies the bridge that connects Torgersen Hall to the campus’ more traditional main Newman Library. The electronic reading room, with its warm uplighted wood ceiling and commanding views of the university war memorial, drill field and mountains to the west of Blacksburg, has become the university’s emblematic interior space.

“Interesting design…drama, beauty, function.”—2003 jury

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