1980s-present
On one hundred and twenty acres adjacent to Virginia Tech Airport, the high-tech research park has more than one hundred companies engaged in corporate and governmental research. Most of the buildings are low and wide, generally not more than two stories in height, crisp and modern in design, and surrounded by lawns and parking areas. Among the approximately thirty buildings along Kraft Drive and adjacent streets is the two-story Building VII (1995, Scribner Messer Brady and Wade; 1700 Kraft), one of the center's many laboratories. Composed of a series of masonry and glass blocks that project and recede along the facade, the entrance is sheltered by a winglike canopy, and stair towers of glass and steel give access to the second story.