Vision & Guiding Principles
Our Vision and Guiding Principles are built upon a solid foundation of collaboration, innovation and leadership.
The Vision
The Myers-Lawson School of Construction (MLSoC) at Virginia Tech shall be the constant beacon for innovation and excellence in construction outreach, research, and education. Through the joint venture between the Dept. of Building Construction (BC) in the College of Architecture and the Vecellio Construction Engineering and Management Program (VCEMP) in the Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering, the school provides a uniform identity for excellence and provides a path for growth in construction education, research and outreach within Virginia Tech, to the academic community and to the construction industry. The MLSoC shall blend the spirits of both BC and VCEMP to achieve excellence in its own mission and guiding principles as well as support, nurture, grow and develop the participating entities.
Our Guiding Principles
Our Guiding Principles are elaborated in three concepts that form our areas of excellence, underlying philosophy and reason for being:
- Values Based Leadership
The school and its participating entities will provide research and learning environments that exemplify Values Based Leadership. These leadership values are founded in the highest ethical standards and behavior that extend across the decisions that we as members of our construction community encounter in every day life including areas of:- Human interactions/relationships such as respect and empathy for a diverse population, safety, caring for people and the entities we work with, growth of the individual; and
- Society/community involvement including local, regional, national and world involvement with an understanding of sustaining our society and communities for future generations.
- Excellence in creative learning environments and research
The school and its participating entities will concentrate on learning environments that promote academic inquiry, pursuit of discovery, and human enlightenment and that provide maximum learning for our students. The school will be known for developing and using creative learning environments that include case based, seminar based, project based and studio based learning integrated with E-learning technologies and classical learning modes to improve access, efficiency and quality. The school will be known for rigorous research methodology and products. We will concentrate on doing the best quality research that will enrich academic thinking and benefit the construction community. - Integrating and Sustaining the Built Environment
The school and its participating entities will address all the elements of the built environment that must come together in a unified and integrated way to provide the best value for owners and our society. We will embrace field operations, production and productivity management as a necessary element of project management. We will strive to lead the change towards facilities that produce a net contribution to our environment and society. The elements that need to be embraced include integration for livability, safety, performance, energy consumption, sustainability, operation, and salvage. The school will take a leading role in growing a construction community that will address the interface issues that are critical to the long term success of the built environment and our industry.