What it does
Give VT alumni, students, and fans one warm, personality-led place to revisit campus history: buildings, demolished dorms, a time-machine map, and community polls.
Currently
Live at /118b as a multi-page fan site. The homepage reads like a magazine, there is a building directory with 77 static building pages, a timeline with scroll-spy decade nav, a single-year campus map, and community era polls. Built for six VT audiences but aimed first at nostalgic alumni.
Recently shipped
- Jun 24, 2026Added sticky scroll-spy decade nav to the timeline so you always know which era you are in as you scroll.
- Jun 10, 2026Reimagined 118B from a single map into a multi-page fan site: magazine homepage, building directory, 77 building pages, timeline, simplified map, plus a security and accessibility launch gate.
- Jun 4, 2026Shipped community era polls with seeded votes, plus onboarding, share URLs, era presets, and a Blacksburg weather badge.
- Mar 25, 2026Shipped the original campus time machine: an interactive VT map with a timeline slider.
How it's built
How I built it
I went to Virginia Tech from 2008 to 2012, and 118B is named for the I-81 exit that drops you into Blacksburg. It started as a campus time machine, a map you could scrub through the decades, but the more I built it the more I realized the map was the smallest part of the story. People do not come back for a map, they come back for the feeling of the place. So I reframed it into a content-led fan site and demoted the map to one component among many. The decision I am proudest of is competing on personality instead of utility: VT already has official tools, and they are fine and forgettable. This one is for the Hokies who actually lived there.