Varsity Hall, University of Virginia

Varsity Hall, built at the University of Virginia in 1857, is noted as one of the earliest college infirmaries in the country. In 2005, UVA moved the historic brick structure to expand its Commerce School.

Train & Partners coordinated, designed, and managed the relocation. Crews kept the building level as they inched it 185 feet down an eight degree slope of packed gravel, a process that took nearly nine hours. Eighteen hydraulic dollies supported the upper two floors of the building, which had a new ground floor built underneath it at the new site.

The restoration recaptured the "essence" of the building. Original paint schemes, both interior and exterior, were duplicated, and the hardwood floors were exposed after years of being covered by linoleum. Train & Partners undertook an extensive search of written records, plans and old photographs to determine the most appropriate actions for the site.