State's only dental school to get state-of-the-art facility with expanded clinical capacity, targeted for late 2029 completion
Virginia lawmakers have cleared the way for Virginia Commonwealth University to move forward with a long-anticipated new home for its School of Dentistry. The state budget passed by the General Assembly this week includes construction funding for the project, with Gov. Abigail Spanberger expected to sign it into law ahead of the new fiscal year.
A Five-Story Replacement for an Aging Facility
The new building will rise five stories and span 312,000 square feet on VCU's health sciences campus in Richmond. It's designed to house classrooms, academic offices, research-grade labs, and clinical space for the school's predoctoral, dental hygiene, and specialty dentistry programs — a significant upgrade aimed at bringing the facility in line with current standards in dental education.
Construction will take place on the site of the current Larrick Student Center, which is scheduled for demolition in spring 2027. That location keeps the new building close to existing and planned health system facilities while remaining accessible to patients and the surrounding community. Groundbreaking is targeted for May 2027, with completion expected by late 2029.
The project's design team includes Kahler Slater and Hanbury, with Barton Malow Company serving as general contractor.
Why It Matters for Access to Care
VCU's is the only dental school in Virginia, and the scale of its clinical operation underscores the stakes of the investment. The School of Dentistry currently accommodates more than 100,000 patient visits each year from across the commonwealth, and it is the state's primary dental safety-net clinic, serving as the largest provider of dental care to Virginians insured by Medicaid. As the only dental school in the state, it's also the sole facility offering complete multidisciplinary dental care — spanning oral surgery, periodontics, orthodontics, prosthodontics, oral medicine, and dental sleep medicine alongside preventive services. vcuvcu
School leadership framed the new building as a direct response to capacity and workforce pressures. Interim Dean Jeff Johnson, D.M.D., Ed.D., said the facility "will enable increased student enrollment and advanced clinical learning environments, ensuring that we can provide exceptional care for our patients while preparing the next generation of dentists and dental hygienists to serve the commonwealth of Virginia." vcu
University leadership echoed that the project reaches beyond the dental school itself. VCU President Michael Rao said the funding approval "reflects a shared commitment to improving access to care for Virginians, strengthening the healthcare workforce and serving communities across our state," adding that the building would expand clinical training opportunities for students. vcu
Built to Compete for Talent
Beyond patient capacity, VCU is positioning the facility as a recruiting tool. Executive Vice President and Provost Arturo Saavedra, M.D., Ph.D., called it "a monumental leap forward for our students, faculty, staff and community," saying the world-class clinical and research environment would help VCU "remain a top destination for the brightest minds in oral health." vcu
The project is also expected to expand the school's clinic for adults with special needs — a population often underserved in private-practice settings — while giving VCU a stronger hand in competing with out-of-state dental schools for top students and faculty.
Community-Facing Design
Beyond clinical and academic space, the building will include a student courtyard, a community garden, a main-floor café open to the broader university, and four multipurpose classrooms available for campus events — signaling an intent to integrate the facility into daily life on the health sciences campus rather than isolate it as a clinical-only building.
The Bigger Picture
The dental school funding was bundled into the same budget that authorizes VCU to purchase the Altria Center for Research and Technology, part of a broader wave of capital investment in the university's health sciences infrastructure. For a state where VCU trains virtually the entire in-state pipeline of new dentists and dental hygienists, the project represents one of the more consequential dental education investments in the country this cycle — one other dental schools facing their own space and enrollment constraints may be watching closely.