Collegiate Times

In a crowded room of news reporters, television camera crews and university administrators, Virginia Tech officials announced yesterday their proposals to wield the Myers-Lawson School of Construction ? and the $10 million gift that will make the conglomerate of architectural and engineering programs possible.

A. Ross Myers, the CEO of American Infrastructure, and John R. Lawson II, the president and CEO of W.M. Jordan Company, Inc., jointly made the multi-million dollar donation for the school.

?This new school is intended to combine the strengths of two great programs: the Department of Building Construction in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies and the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,? Tech President Charles Steger said at the press conference at the Inn at Virginia Tech.

Steger said the $10 million gift is ?one of the largest gifts ever given to Virginia Tech? and would be used to prepare students at the proposed school for academic study in an area that contributes to an estimated 10 percent of the world?s economy.

The university will plant the proposed Myers-Lawson School of Construction in a building adjacent to Cowgill Hall that it has not yet started, Steger said. Plans for the new facility ? which will be named Bishop-Favrao Hall after philanthropist Richard Bishop and former building construction department head William Favrao ? were previously approved by the Board of Visitors.

Yvan J. Beliveau, the head of the Department of Building Construction, said he will serve as the director of the new school.

?We will build a construction community,? he said, ?which is something not typically done.?

At the press conference, Beliveau narrated the series of events that led to the creation of the new school. In 1985, he and construction engineering professor Michael Vorster launched the construction management and engineering program within the Department of Civil Engineering.

Ten years later, he moved to the College of Architecture to become the head of its building construction program. Then, Beliveau said, Vorster sketched out a concept for the new school along with Vorster, who then gained the support of fellow construction industry leader Lawson.

Myers and Lawson, who are both Virginia Tech alumni, met during their undergraduate years in the 1970s as fellow members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, they said.

?When we were in school together, one of us was tall, blond and the life of the party, and the other one of us was quiet. I?ll let you determine which one of us that was,? said Myers, who is notably shorter than Lawson.

Lawson, who chairs the BOV?s buildings and grounds committee, spoke highly of the proposed school and its academic possibilities, describing the construction process as the ?ultimate jigsaw puzzle? and adding that he and his colleague were ?very proud to give back to the community.?

Beliveau said the school itself will be unique in its teaching methods and focus on ?values-based leadership.?
?Not only are we combining the best from the colleges of architecture and engineering, but we are also combining a business side and entrepreneurial thinking,? Beliveau said.

The proposed school, Beliveau said, will combine the expertise of eight faculty members from the Department of Building Construction and an additional four from the construction engineering and management program. Three new faculty members may be hired for the new school.