Students have now had a full year in the new Visual Arts and Design Center at Tidewater Community College, but the project is still gaining new fans in the architecture community. The most recent recognition of the adaptive reuse project comes from Retrofit Magazine, which included the center in its package of notable education retrofits.

Located at street level on Boush Street in downtown Norfolk, beneath the 15-story condominium community Harbor Heights, the space now occupied by the Visual Arts and Design Center was previously a grocery store. The new facility was a necessity for the college’s visual arts program, which was forced to borrow space from other departments after electrical issues made its previous home in Portsmouth untenable. 

The challenge for WPA was to quickly design, build, and deliver a new visual arts center in the 38,180-square-foot space that could contain the college’s expanding programs, such as graphic design. Despite volatile pandemic pricing and supply chain challenges, the design and build team managed to stay on schedule and within budget, allowing for classes to start in the fall semester of 2023.

The Visual Arts and Design Center was featured alongside The Henry Ford history museum in Dearborn, Mich.; the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.; and Johns Hopkins University’s adaptive reuse of the Newseum building in Washington, D.C. (which is pictured on the cover of the magazine).

View the full issue here.