Dick Laurance was named UVA’s project director for construction administration in 1992, and has been building full steam ahead ever since. He’s overseen many giant construction projects in his day (including the Scott Stadium expansion), but none was bigger than the recently completed $129 million John Paul Jones Arena. We sat down to ask him all about it.
On Tuesday, June 13, UVA Associate VP for Business Operations Richard Kovatch stood in front of a somnolent crowd at Newcomb Hall and did his best to make the impending debut of the John Paul Jones Arena a truly seismic event. The numbers were indeed impressive: 366,000 square feet, 15,000-plus seats, 20 luxury suites, 175 TV monitors, 350 restroomsâand all for the low, low price of just $129 million.
Pity poor Susan Shafarzek. This recent-ly relocated Virginian (she moved from Albany, New York, in 1999) was just settling into her position as fiction editor at Streetlight, Charlottesville’s venerable local lit mag, when word came down that Editor-in-Chief Susan Williamson was stepping down to focus on her work at the Tupelo Press. For many small, […]