Lettie Pate Whitehead Hall, Longwood University, Farmville, Virginia

Skanska has topped out Lettie Pate Whitehead Hall, the new home for Longwood University’s music department in Farmville, Virginia. Longwood, Skanska and trade partner staff signed the final beam before it was lifted into place in October 2026, about 14 months after work began, and the frame now stands for a 63,800-square-foot building built around a 500-seat concert hall with adjustable acoustics.

It’s a building designed for unamplified sound. The hall is meant for orchestra, choir and recitals, which is a different construction problem from a gym or a lecture hall.

Project Scope

Whitehead Hall replaces the old Bristow building on the east side of Longwood’s central campus, across from Dorrill Dining Hall. Bristow, which housed facilities management, came down in October 2025 after those staff moved to Charter Hall. The new building takes over from Wygal Hall, the music department’s current home, and will hold teaching studios, classrooms, flexible rehearsal and performance rooms and faculty offices.

Calloway Johnson Moore & West of Lynchburg and David M. Schwarz Architects designed it, with brick and stone outside to match Longwood’s existing campus. The project is targeting LEED-NC Silver.

Skanska’s contract is worth $73 million. The student paper reported a total budget of roughly $100 million, with more than $97 million allocated as of a September 2025 report to the Board of Visitors. To date, the job has placed 2,300 cubic yards of concrete and 28.2 tons of reinforcing steel over 45,000 trade work hours, and it’s spent $8 million with small, women-owned and minority-owned firms under Virginia’s SWaM program. Skanska’s schedule calls for completion in April 2028, in time for the fall 2028 semester.

Why It Matters

Roughly 600 students take classes in Wygal each year, according to the student paper. Whitehead Hall gives Longwood a dedicated music venue it can also open to the town.

It also extends Skanska’s run on the Farmville campus. The firm built the 72,000-square-foot Joan Perry Brock Center and the 84,000-square-foot Upchurch University Center, and that repeat relationship matters in a small market where a regional university is one of the biggest owners around.

The hard part comes next. Adjustable acoustics mean movable panels, banners or chamber elements, plus quiet mechanical systems and isolation between practice rooms. That’s where performance halls usually win or lose their reviews, and Longwood has 18 months to get it right.

Project Team & Details