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‘Breaking ground on Virginia’s future’ at Mason Square

Colleen Rich — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 21:56:51 +0000

‘Breaking ground on Virginia’s future’ at Mason Square Colleen Rich Wed, 04/06/2022 - 17:56

The new 345,000-square-foot facility will serve as a technological hub in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor connecting students, faculty, industry and government. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

George Mason University officially welcomed a new era in Arlington with Wednesday’s groundbreaking ceremony for Fuse at Mason Square, which will serve as a technological hub in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor connecting students, faculty, industry and government.

Mason President Gregory Washington joined a slew of elected, industry and university officials in celebrating the start of construction of the new 345,000-square-foot facility that will embody Mason’s commitment to Northern Virginia’s next-generation workforce.

“We are not just breaking ground on a building—we are truly breaking ground on Virginia’s future,” said Mason President Gregory Washington. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

The building is slated to open in 2025.

“We are not just breaking ground on a building—we are truly breaking ground on Virginia’s future,” Washington said.

The first-of-its-kind building will bring together the public and private sectors in a collaborative alliance to address the world’s grand challenges.

“We’re all looking forward very much to see the institutional growth here, the people who will gather and collide here, and the innovations that will emanate from here,” said Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president for global innovation policy and communications, and a Mason law school alum. “If this were a book, I’d love to turn the pages ahead a few chapters and see where all this is going, but I’m confident that you are all on the right trajectory.”

Other speakers in the roughly 90-minute program included state Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera; Mason Rector Jimmy Hazel; Mason Board of Visitors member and President’s Innovation Advisory Council member Dolly Oberoi; Arlington County Board Chair Katie Cristol; Mason students Maya Chatterjee and Jared Ponmakha; Clark Construction Group Senior Vice President Dave Tacchetti; Mason Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance Carol Kissal; and Jamie Martin of Mason Innovation Partners. Trishana Bowden, Mason’s vice president of advancement and alumni relations, served as the program’s host.

Mason students Maya Chatterjee and Jared Ponmakha spoke as part of the groundbreaking. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

Fuse at Mason Square will serve as the home to faculty and students working with the Institute for Digital Innovation (IDIA) and its partners, as well as graduate programs within Mason’s new School of Computing.

The collaborative effort is designed to promote digital innovation, active learning and cutting-edge research in the presence of business entrepreneurs, tech incubators, and education and policy makers.

Developed in partnership with Mason Innovation Partners, led by Edgemoor Infrastructure and Real Estate, Fuse at Mason Square will be a LEED Platinum, smart, net-zero-ready building with Fitwell 2-star and RELi resiliency. It will feature a green roof for energy-efficient heating and cooling, an agile floor design to enable responsive team or project growth, and specialized labs for robotics, virtual reality, simulation, security and data visualization.

Other amenities will include community seating in a double-height atrium, a 750-seat theater-style multipurpose room, retail, a public plaza and a below-grade parking garage, making it a natural gathering place for the campus and nearby community.

This Arlington expansion supports the state of Virginia’s Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP), a 20-year program designed to produce more than 25,000 additional graduates in computer science, computer engineering and software engineering.

“Fuse at Mason Square will rise into the Arlington skyline,” Washington said, “and one day, it will actually greet the 22nd century.”

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Fuse at Mason Square

Enslaved People of George Mason Memorial to be dedicated

Colleen Rich — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 16:08:11 +0000

Enslaved People of George Mason Memorial to be dedicated Colleen Rich Mon, 03/28/2022 - 12:08

It was the summer of 2017, and five George Mason University students and three faculty members were beginning their research into the children enslaved by George Mason IV, the university’s namesake.

Wendi Manuel-Scott, a professor of integrative studies and history, and one of the faculty members on the project, recalled how the students at one point “began to talk about how it would be awesome if years from now they came to campus and there’s a plaque that honors the enslaved people held by George Mason.”

As it turned out, they got much more than a plaque, as what was the Enslaved Children of George Mason project led to the Enslaved People of George Mason Memorial, a focal point of how the university is addressing its identity as it relates to a complicated Patriot.

“The purpose of the project was to raise awareness about George Mason IV, the man, the patriot and the slaveholder,” Manuel-Scott said. “Our goal was to focus on expanding our community’s understanding of Mason, and to focus on the people he owned and what they thought about freedom.”

The memorial on the Fairfax Campus (see the video) is the centerpiece of the newly renovated Wilkins Plaza, named for the African American civil rights leader, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and beloved Mason professor.

One panel is dedicated to to Penny, an enslaved girl given by Mason to his daughter. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

It will be dedicated at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, April 4, as part of the university’s 50th anniversary celebration.

“I started that project the summer after my sophomore year, and it sounded cool to have research that maybe would contribute to a memorial on campus," said Mason alum Kye Farrow, BA History ’19, MS Management ’20. "But it was really difficult at the time to see how it would get there. So, yes, still today, I'm absolutely amazed the work we did went to the product that's there today."

Other students on the project were Alexis Bracey, BA Global Affairs ’19; Ayman Fatima, BS Systems Engineering, BA Government and International Politics ’21; Farhaj Murshed, BS Statistics ’20; and Elizabeth Perez-Garcia, BS Criminology, Law, and Society ’19.

It was important each student came from a different academic discipline, Manuel-Scott said.

“Each brought a different way of seeing and thinking, and a different way to analyze and explore records,” she said. “That interdisciplinarity created a richness in terms of the project.”

Mason faculty Gabrielle Tayac and Wendi Manuel-Scott gather water from the Potomac River to use in the fountain on Wilkins Plaza. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

The project was launched by Manuel-Scott; Benedict Carton, a faculty member in History and Art History; and Mason alum George Oberle, Mason’s history librarian and a term faculty member in the Department of History and Art History.

All are leaders in the Center for Mason Legacies, an interdisciplinary and collaborative research center established by the University Library and College of Humanities and Social Sciences that encourages student research to preserve and examine the legacy of George Mason IV and the people he enslaved.

The Enslaved People of George Mason project “shows that Mason is striving to be an exemplar institution in relation to the idea of promoting student inquiry and being open to where that goes and takes us, even if it’s not always a happy story,” Oberle said.

The memorial includes the iconic statue of Mason. A new pedestal includes four quotes which highlight the different aspects of his life, including the penning of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the foundation of the U.S. Bill of Rights. But Mason also enslaved more than 100 people at his Gunston Hall plantation and did not free any upon his death.

Memorial panels are also dedicated to Penny, an enslaved child given by Mason to his daughter, and James, Mason’s personal attendant. A fountain contains stones in a pattern that symbolize an African custom of gathering and prayer.

To acknowledge an altar that was constructed next to the Potomac River by the enslaved at Gunston Hall, and to acknowledge that the land on which the university was built was originally inhabited by indigenous people, water from the Potomac River will be poured into the fountain.

“It’s a way to interconnect the worlds, between the place of enslavement, the place of difficulty, but also a place that’s life-giving,” said Gabrielle Tayac, an associate professor of public history at Mason, and a Piscataway tribal citizen. “To pour the water into the fountain that recalls those connections and all of those hopes and dreams and memories the people had, it’s a way of awakening and blending those intentions.”

Said Carton: “Our project sought to guide students’ sense of moral duty, as they branched out to discover hidden histories. This duty is focused on reconstructing the everyday humanity of enslaved people whose lives had deep meaning, despite the cruelties of enslavement.”

“The moral duty,” he said, “is in the learning.”

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Enslaved People of George Mason Memorial

Masonat50

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Campus Improvements (Construction)

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