The project: Waitzer Hall at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) is a prominent approximately 144,000-sf landmark building located at the entrance of EVMS’s medical campus in Norfolk, VA, overlooking Brambleton and Colley Avenues and adjacent to the Elizabeth River waterfront. The facility delivers academic, administrative, wellness, and social support functions to EVMS’s medical and health professions students. It comprises a three-story podium dedicated to education and student services, topped by an 11-story tower with offices and a 310-car parking garage.

The goal: EVMS envisioned Waitzer Hall as a transformative, team-based learning environment that supports active instruction, interdisciplinary education, and student support in a single facility. The goal was to consolidate classroom, study, wellness, and administrative spaces into a unified academic hub that would address capacity needs, reinforce modern pedagogy, and strengthen EVMS’s institutional identity along a highly visible gateway to the medical campus

The design:

  • Structural composition: The tower is built with cast-in-place concrete floors and columns, while the academic podium is framed in structural steel over two stories.
  • Foundations: Supported on driven or augercast concrete piles, with pile caps and grade beams tied to the structure via the foundation mat
  • Interior planning: The podium houses flexible classrooms, a student testing center, wellness center, study lounges, and administrative offices. The tower accommodates departmental offices and a boardroom with river views. Common areas feature floor-to-ceiling glazing, natural light, and collaborative furnishings.
  • Site placement: Situated at a high-visibility intersection, the building functions architecturally as a campus gateway and integrates seamlessly with neighboring medical institutions.

The outcome: Waitzer Hall was completed and formally opened in 2021. The new facility has expanded EVMS’s capacity to educate and support future physicians and health professionals. It serves as a centralized campus hub, enhanced learning environment, and symbolic landmark in Norfolk’s medical district.