Our Garden Pavilion
Where the vision began:
The founders of the Steger Center for International Scholarship, Olivio and Lucy Ferrari, imagined a place where students would learn from the region as well as in it. Former Virginia Tech President Charles Steger championed that vision, and the center now bears his name.
The Garden Pavilion, a $1.7 million project, builds on what they began. Friends of the Steger Center have already brought this project within $450,000 of its fundraising goal.
Support Their Vision:
Every gift will help open the doors of this special gathering space to the next class of students and to the neighbors and regional partners who will join them there.
the Steger Center's mission The Garden Pavilion is where that heart beats as a year-round hub for relationship-building and cultural connections.
In our garden...
Mealtime becomes conversation beneath the trees.
Classes move outdoors.
Community and students mingle.
In the Garden Pavilion, this learning and community engagement will expand year-round for every major.
A Vision Rooted In Place
The Garden Pavilion extends the community building and
cultural learning that our garden is known for year-round.
The architectural renderings show how the outbuilding
is transformed into a large, bright, flexible space
Back cross-section: Large front windows preserve the historic arched facade and fill the gathering spaces with natural light.
Front cross-section: Skylights will bring daylight into the below-grade spaces, creating a bright, welcoming environment.
Side cross-section: Extending into the hillside creates ample space without altering the profile of the original structure.
Top-down view: The layout includes a teaching kitchen and flex space for classes, meals, and gatherings.
Honoring history and culture while building sustainably for the future
The Steger Center sits at the edge of Riva’s nucleo, its historic core, across from the parish church and above the town’s fifth-century baptistery. In such a setting, every addition carries a responsibility to the place around it. At the garden’s edge, the original arcade and stone basin recall the villa’s agricultural past. The design of the Garden Pavilion retains these historic elements.
Sustainability begins with reuse. A structure built to serve the villa’s daily life will serve it again. An outbuilding will become a modern, bright, useful space. By building into the hillside, the historic facade is preserved while classroom and gathering space for cultural programming is maximized. Skylights bring daylight deep inside.
ssteinertborella@vt.edu
+41.91.648.3651