The Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine is renovating and expanding its teaching hospital in Blacksburg. The hospital will remain open during construction.
VMCVM is part of Virginia Tech, and its teaching hospital in Blacksburg sees over 16,000 dogs and cats a year, explains the college’s dean, Daniel Givens.
“Since the original hospital was completed in 1987, we’ve seen a really significant increase in the number of animals, cases, coming through the hospital,” Givens explained. “The number of students that we’re training at the hospital has increased, and the complexity of those cases has increased.”
In 1987 when this hospital was finished, the veterinary college had 70 students in each class. Today that’s grown to 126. Most are from Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia.
Givens said the expansion will include 35,000 square feet of new space, and 17,000 of the current hospital that’s being remodeled.
“It’s going to allow us to see more cases, to do a better job seeing the really complex cases that we see,” Givens said. “But also we need space for the students to talk with and learn from the specialists.”
A groundbreaking ceremony next year will include a draft horse pulling a plow—it’s actually the same plow that helped break ground when the hospital was originally built.
Pulling the plow will be a horse owned by a Virginia Tech alumnus.
“We’re anticipating that we will have a newly named president of Virginia Tech at some point in the near future,” Givens added. “So in some ways, the plow has been chosen, the horse has been chosen, we just need the president to be chosen.”
The renovation is expected to be complete by 2029 at a cost of $63 million.
