Campus continues to grow: A look at 2025 construction projects
Several construction projects are underway around Liberty University with the goal of building, expanding and revitalizing campus facilities for future visitors, students and faculty.
The Champion Center is the long-awaited and largest project, located in the bustling center of Liberty’s campus. This 70,000-square-foot addition to the rear of the Hancock Welcome Center will serve as a place for prospective students and their families to learn more about the university.
Dan Deter, senior vice president of facilities, planning and management for the university, looks forward to the new venue serving its purpose.
“It will provide our visitors with a vision and explanation of our mission statement of training champions for Christ. It will show the world that we are standing on our core principles, and we aren’t changing them,” Deter said.
Deter emphasized that this project has been in the works for a long time, but the end date is finally in sight.
“We’ve gone through some design changes, and we think we’ve got a great design,” Deter said. “The building will be wrapped up in October or November of this year, and then we will come in and work on the technology side of it.”
Some exciting amenities planned for the building include a theater featuring an 1,800-foot LED curved screen, a Heritage Showcase area and the “Path of Champions” — both of which will include interactive displays.
“We are expanding the multi-purpose room in the Champion Center to hold 2,000 (people), so now we have a venue that will hold more than any other we’ve had,” Deter said.
The project is slated to be completed by Spring 2026, barring any material procurement issues.
Although the Champion Center is Liberty’s most anticipated project, several more improvements are being made on campus and in the greater Lynchburg area.
The new parking deck at North Campus is not only a home for cars, but also a club sports training program and a data center. These additions were included in the newly finished garage build-out facing Macado’s. Club sports will occupy the top floor, while the data center will operate on the lower level.
Deter said the data center will continue to grow.
“We have two data centers on campus right now,” Deter said. There is one here in Green Hall, and there is one in DeMoss. We are running out of space in those data centers because everything is going electronic, and AI is coming. So, we needed more physical space for a data center.”
To create an increasingly energy-efficient campus, Liberty has integrated energy-saving light fixtures, heating technology and car counters at the entrances and exits of parking garages.
The construction team plans to install cameras and car counter boards outside each parking location to let patrons know how many spaces are available in each deck.
“When we eventually get that project finished, we will try to put those live counters on the Champion Safe app or the MyLU app so that students can pull it up on their phones and see where there is space to park in all three garages — and allow them to plan their day better,” Deter said.
These new additions will significantly impact daily life on campus, along with pending renovations as well.
Construction teams recently broke ground on a new Liberty fire station, added a golf practice range, renovated the Fairfield Inn, upgraded technology in the School of Music, and resurfaced the indoor track. Deter said there are also blueprints to add six more pickleball courts to campus.
Student Body President Isaac Kantola believes that Liberty’s ongoing improvements are serving a greater purpose.
“One thing I appreciate the most about Liberty, compared to other universities, is that we take having a beautiful campus seriously,” Kantola said. “I think that if Liberty is showing students and shaping them to be good Christians who can see the goodness, truth, and beauty of the faith, we need to make sure that the campus is beautiful and reflects God’s beauty.”
Riden is a news reporter for the Liberty Champion.