| One feature that makes Virginia Tech (VT) so | | | | architecture. |
| memorable a school is their spectacular landscape of | | | | The decision to use limestone as part of the |
| a campus. The Drillfield stands at the center of the | | | | structure of the buildings came after the campus' |
| campus amid a number of beautiful limestone | | | | earlier buildings were built using bricks in a Victorian |
| buildings. Virginia Tech's building come from the local | | | | style met with great disapproval. The Virginia Tech |
| products of Southwest Virginia's geology. | | | | students felt that the buildings built as they were |
| The buildings are home grown and constructed from | | | | bore too similar a resemblance to the shoe factories |
| the limestone mines that are found in the university's | | | | and cotton mills of that time. This was a concern |
| own quarry on the outskirts of the campus. At first, | | | | because at the time Virginia Tech had a bit of a |
| the limestone was affectionately referred to as "our | | | | reputation as a low brow school, so they tried to |
| native stone," a term that was consolidated to more | | | | stay away from a poverty stricken look as much as |
| popularly be known simply as the Hokie Stone. These | | | | they could. |
| stones call back to an earlier era when structures | | | | The process in which the limestone was transformed |
| were constructed by hands rather than machines. | | | | into such beautiful buildings is itself another Virginia |
| VT opened as Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical | | | | Tech metaphor. Turning the Limestone into buildings |
| College over a century ago, and through all that has | | | | was a process that turned raw stone material into |
| happened, everything that has changed through time, | | | | nicely sized stones for building. Students of VT go |
| the Hokie Stone has prevailed along with the heart | | | | through a similar process of being refined into |
| and soul of the Virginia Tech College and of its | | | | successful and world changing individuals. Hokie Stone |
| students and faculty. The stone also represents the | | | | is used in all manner of buildings, ranging from the |
| strength of the strong stonemasons who long ago | | | | grandest to the smallest. Hokie Stone is part of the |
| lay down the completed blocks of limestone to | | | | campus' tallest bridge in the same way that a bench |
| match the Collegiate Gothic design of the | | | | beside a maple tree is made from Hokie Stone. |