Alumnus plays large role in designing Innovation Campus’ future

Sven Shockey spent four years at the University of Rochester, earned his degree in cognitive science, and became an … architect.

So how exactly does one go from studying the human mind and how it functions to designing buildings?

“That’s a good question,” Shockey said, smiling. “At the time, I was also very interested in music and art and architecture, so I was thinking about how to combine the technical research and the analytical approach from something like cognitive science with something creative, but also impactful. I thought architecture was a happy medium between those two interests.”

Virginia Tech welcomed Shockey ’96 and his diverse interests to Blacksburg, and he wound up getting his master’s degree in architecture from the university. Today, he is playing a critical role in arguably the largest capital project in the university’s history.

Shockey works as a vice president and design director at SmithGroup, a national architecture design firm with regional offices throughout the country, including Washington, D.C. Shockey works out of the D.C. office and has worked with the team responsible for the design of Academic Building One, the first building of the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus in Alexandria.

The 300,000-square-foot, 11-story building – expected to open next spring – will support the graduation of 550 master’s and 50 doctoral degree students in the fields of computer science and computer engineering annually.

This investment and the future influx of talent into the workforce played a large role in Amazon deciding to move its HQ2 headquarters to nearby Arlington County. Boeing and Raytheon, too, moved to Northern Virginia in part because of access to engineering talent.

“It [Innovation Campus] is going to be an important project, not only for Virginia Tech, but for Northern Virginia and for the region in general,” Shockey said. “I think there is a lot of optimism about the kind of synergy that could happen between Amazon, the larger Northern Virginia technology firm ecosystem, and then Virginia Tech contributing to a pipeline of tech talent.

“Then we, as a firm, saw it as an enormous opportunity.”

Shockey led the design team that was part of the larger interdisciplinary group of SmithGroup architects, planners, and engineers who spent the better part of two years designing the building based on 10 guiding principles submitted by Virginia Tech.

Shockey and his team wove together attributes of sustainability, health and wellness, green and social spaces, flexibility, and integrated technology into what Innovation Campus leaders say is a beautiful and efficient design.

That he led the team and came up with an appealing final product comes as no surprise to those who both know him and mentored him.

“Architects come into their own a bit late in life,” said Frank Weiner, a longtime School of Architecture professor in Virginia Tech's College of Architecture, Arts, and Design and one who taught Shockey in several courses. “Great projects often occur in their 50s and well beyond. It takes time to mature as an architect, however, Sven is well on his way to reaching that level.

“He has a natural capacity to collaborate with others, which is a gift. He brings the best out of the folks he works with. He also collaborates with ideas almost like a laboratory scientist with an aesthetic sensibility, which gives his work a breadth and depth. Folks naturally want to work with him. … He has matured, but at the same time, did not lose his youthful openness to search for new things.”

Shockey started working at SmithGroup in October 1998 not long after graduating from Virginia Tech. While in school, he combined his love of the arts with a passion for architecture, and Weiner encouraged him to fuse those interests.

The result was a master’s thesis consisting of a swinging pendulum with a multi-channel auditory component – sounds recorded from architectural places and a recording of T.S. Eliot reading his poem “The Wasteland.” Shockey placed the sound in motion during his thesis presentation and made sound visible and spatial – a very architectural concept.

“I think our three-year master’s degree program has always provided a path for students without architectural backgrounds to change their lives beyond making a career change,” Weiner said. “This may sound like an overstatement, but it is true.

“Students enter our program with a wide variety of undergraduate degrees across the spectrum, including mathematics, literature, philosophy, the sciences, and more. They bring great intellectual capital to the program that creates a group energy to take on a new undertaking. It is not surprising, they, like Sven, can go on to have distinguished careers in architecture and allied fields. The structure of the program allows them to reset in the deepest sense creating a springboard for future action.”

Shockey has since done that throughout his career. He methodically worked his way up the ranks, being promoted to vice president and design director in 2016 and leading the way on many of the firm’s most important projects, including the one at Innovation Campus.

Many in the Alexandria area have already been privy to SmithGroup’s design over the past couple of years as work has commenced on the structure. In fact, those who bike down the popular Mount Vernon Trail, for example, caught glimpses of it through the trees, while others saw it from the nearby marina or from across the Potomac River.

For one Virginia Tech alumnus, the final product will be a career highlight, knowing that he not only designed a building, but also understand the worldly impact it will have on the students will learn in it and then go on to deliver their own impact in the world.

“Obviously for me, personally, it is a fortuitous happenstance,” Shockey said. “I've been working for 25-plus years, and I've worked on several university projects throughout the country, but then, to have it come back to your alma mater is so gratifying. It completes the loop in a way from all the excitement first being a student immersed in the learning environment and then, on the other hand, to be able to impact the learning environment years later.”