The Virginia War Memorial's "Memory" statue with construction in the distance (Photo by Adam DuBrueler)
By Memorial Day next year, soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan will be honored at the expanded Virginia War Memorial.
Nearly a year after the $25 million project’s groundbreaking in June 2017, excavation of the hillside between the War Memorial and Second Street is complete, construction workers have laid the foundation, and the building is starting to take shape.
The project includes a Medal of Honor display space, a gallery dedicated to veterans’ artwork, a lecture hall with room for about 350 seats, and a Distance Education Center from which programs can be broadcast to classrooms around the state. It also quadruples the site’s parking capacity to nearly 180 spaces.
Most of the funding for 26,000-square-foot expansion comes from the state, with an additional $1.25 million from the Virginia War Memorial Foundation, which is conducting a capital campaign.
The purpose, says Clay Mountcastle, director of the Virginia War Memorial, is to recognize Virginians who have died serving their country since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks “in the same way that we’ve been able to honor those from World War II, Korea [and] Vietnam.”
Memorial Day events at the Virginia War Memorial include the seventh annual They Gave All 5K on Saturday, May 26 (online registration is closed, but on-site registration is available on the day of the run), and the 62nd annual Commonwealth’s Memorial Day Ceremony on Monday, May 28, at 10 a.m. in the Heilman Amphitheater and Shrine of Memory at the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond. The keynote speaker will be Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax.
