Ted Constant

One construction project bearing the Ted Constant name is virtually completed, and another is only months away from opening. A thoroughly renovated Constant Hall (formerly Chandler Hall), which houses the College of Business and Public Administration, is scheduled to open its doors May 21, and the Ted Constant Convocation Center, an 8,600-seat arena, along with an adjacent four-story parking garage, is scheduled to host a series of grand opening events in November.

The two-story Constant Hall features a variety of modern lecture halls, classrooms and educational facilities, as well as faculty offices, that will serve the university's graduate and undergraduate programs in business and public administration.

A retired Hampton Roads businessman and longtime supporter of scholarships and Old Dominion's basketball programs, Ted Constant and his wife, Connie, increased their support in 1993 with the "Constant Challenge," a $100,000 matching gift program designed to increase unrestricted donations to the university. That was followed by a gift of $1.2 million to the business college, and $5 million to the University Village project. The Board of Visitors voted to name the new convocation center, the cornerstone of the Village project, in Ted Constant's honor.

The state-of-the-art Constant Center will be home to the Monarch and Lady Monarch basketball programs, as well as the site for lectures, commencements and concerts.

Following close behind the Constant Center will be another addition to the University Village, a student housing development consisting of approximately 1,000 beds. Construction on the first phase of this housing is expected to begin in September, with the units opening in August 2003.

Yet another major addition soon to be a permanent fixture of the Old Dominion landscape is the nation's first maglev transportation system. Beginning early fall, a maglev vehicle capable of carrying up to 100 students per trip will run along a 3,400-foot-long elevated guideway through the center of campus, traveling back and forth between the residence halls along Powhatan Avenue and the Constant Center on Hampton Boulevard.

The guideway is in place and the vehicle, which has been undergoing testing in Florida, is expected to arrive this spring. More testing will take place on campus in preparation for passenger service at the start of the fall semester.

A partnership between Old Dominion, American Maglev Technology and Dominion Virginia Power, the maglev system features a vehicle that glides on an electromagnet cushion of air. The car will run back and forth every seven minutes, reaching speeds up to 40 miles an hour. In addition to stations at either end of the guideway, a third station will be located near Webb Center.

Preliminary work has also begun on campus for a $19.6 million Engineering and Computational Sciences Building, a four-story structure that will bring the university's instructional and research programs in the area of advanced computation, including Old Dominion's Supercomputer Center, under one roof.

The facility, to be constructed behind Webb Center near the Oceanography and Physics Building, is expected to open in late fall 2003.