VCU announces $2 million gift for construction of education building at the VCU Rice Center

Inger Rice has pledged $2 million for the construction of an education outreach building at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Inger and Walter Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences.

The approximately 6,000 square-foot building will be used for hands-on environmental sciences education. Students from surrounding school districts as well as VCU students will be able to study and collect biological samples on site and then immediately study them in classrooms and laboratories in the new facility.

“Inger Rice continues to be a great friend to Virginia Commonwealth University,” VCU President Eugene P. Trani said in announcing the gift on Jan. 24. “Her gift will enable us to construct a state-of-the-art educational facility that will allow generations of students to experience and learn from the natural beauty of the tidal James River.

 “This gift will be supported by an additional contribution from VCU of $500,000,” Trani said. “This money will go toward the construction of the education building, a new road onto the property, as well as a variety of research equipment. This will be a fast-track development plan.”

The VCU Rice Center was created from an ecology-rich, 343-acre parcel of land that Inger Rice donated to VCU in 2000. It is located on the north bank of the historic James River, southeast of Richmond in Charles City County. VCU Life Sciences uses the property for research, education and outreach activities, many of which focus on large rivers and their riparian landscapes.

“The education building is essential to help the Rice Center reach its full potential as an education and research facility,” said Inger Rice. “The gift will be used to build the first phase of what I am sure will be an environmentally friendly complex that will make an important contribution to the knowledge base of the natural world around us and to the betterment of life for all Virginians.

“I am confident my late husband, Walter, would agree with that goal,” she said. “It is our legacy to the future.”

The education building is designed to be flexible in its uses. One section will be a multipurpose resource room for teachers, faculty and researchers for study, small lectures and meetings. Another section will serve as multipurpose space for classroom and laboratory use. A third section of the building will be an administration center.

The building will be LEED certified. LEED — the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System — is the nationally accepted benchmark for optimal energy and environmental design and construction.

"This has the potential to be the centerpiece of the greening of a major watershed along the James River,” said Rice Center board member Dan Slone, an environmental and land use attorney.

Construction is expected to begin this spring, with completion targeted for spring 2008. 

Over the past three years, the Rice Center has hosted more than 200 teachers for on-site training and more than 1,000 students in environmental outreach programs, all from the central Virginia region.  Additionally, more than a dozen VCU undergraduate and graduate classes use the site for study and research each year.