VCU news

By Malorie Burkett

The Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry will celebrate the opening of the new W. Baxter Perkinson, Jr. Building with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 12:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 17, on Leigh Street, between 11th and 12th streets.  

Media parking spaces will be available on the east side of the 500 block of North 11th Street on a first-come basis.

Speakers at the ceremony will include VCU President Eugene P. Trani; Sheldon Retchin, M.D., CEO of the VCU Health System and VCU vice president for Health Sciences; Ronald Hunt, D.D.S., dean of the VCU School of Dentistry; Ralph L. Howell, Jr., D.D.S., president of the Virginia Dental Association and W. Baxter Perkinson Jr., D.D.S., VCU alumnus and former rector, for whom the building is named.
    
The $20 million, four-story building will house research laboratories, classrooms, conference facilities, dental clinics and faculty offices. The 55,000 square-foot structure connects the existing School of Dentistry and Lyons buildings.

The new building will increase the dentistry school’s research capacity and allow enrollment to be expanded in the Doctor of Dentistry Surgery and Dental Hygiene programs.

Construction on the $20 million addition began in 2007. The VCU School of Dentistry is Virginia’s only dental school.