NCSU's Centennial & Biotech Campuses

[DanRNC]

It looks like the Jimmy V Golf Tourney is coming back to the Triangle-specifically the new golf course on Centennial Campus. I'm sure the opening of the Convention Center along with this course had something to do with the decision.

Story

[ncwebguy]

The gopack.com article on the 2009 Jimmy V festivities mentions using the convention center for a charity dinner and a research symposium. The course is still said to open in "spring". And it also mentions the return of V Jam:

Aug. 14, 2009

V Jam for Cancer Research: A public concert to be held at the new downtown amphitheater, which is scheduled to open in the spring of 2009.

So this is a semi-confirmation of the new amplitheater west of the convention center, and an ETA on its opening.

[orulz]

Missed this bizjournals article about 2 weeks ago about Centennial Campus.

3 interesting pieces of information.

• Keystone Corp. is planning to build on the NW corner of Varsity and Main Campus - across the street from Venture and Red Hat.
  
• A Maryland company named Bozzuto is going to build 300 apartments on 7 acres on Main Campus Drive. These will be marketed to the general public rather than strictly as student housing. At 42 units per acre, the density is quite a bit higher than your average suburban complex. Main Campus Drive is a pretty big street; depending on where on Main Campus this complex is planned, the density will either be just about right, or somewhat disappointing.
  
• Craig Davis's redux / rescue of the never completed North Shore project is supposedly in the final stages of planning. They want to build 90 condos by the lake, and 50-60 more townhomes.
  

[ChiefJoJo]

^ That's good to hear, but will someone tell me why in the hell NCSU does not start building actual dorms over there? I don't care what the master plan says. Everyone who's spent any time over there knows that it's as sterile as can be and what's needed is thousands of students, faculty and staff living over there. Why not put some townhomes for faculty on the lake and course and then put some dorms over the by the "oval"? When was the last time State built ANY new dorms? Instead it seems like the plan is Brier Creek-style mixed use... which is to say, not really mixed use. NC State is a fine school, but Centennial leaves a lot to be desired.

[Jones_]

^ Is Red Wolf Village actual dorms or some sort of hybrid thing more like apartments? Agreed that Centennial is way way too isolated. Not to play devils advocate, but I bet to some corporate partners, being slightly away from main campus is a draw, with ample parking blah blah...

quite a huge difference from things up in Manhattan (had a chance to visit for free this weekend) where being in the frackus was what companies wanted and owning a car was more of a hinderance than an asset.

Edited October 7, 2008 by Jones133

[orulz]

Wolf Village is a hybrid. Owned by the university, but each unit has 4 (small) single-occupancy bedrooms, a kitchen, and a common area. Not quite as dense from a people per square foot standpoint as a conventional double-occupancy dorm room, but still pretty high, and much more appealing to students these days.

---

I'm honestly not too concerned about whether this particular project is dormitories or privately owned, though I do think that the university should build some school-owned dorms down there as well for the sake of variety. (For example, foreign students may have a hard time with the credit check that an apartment would require.) I don't think that dorms are in the current master plan, though the plan changes quite a bit at every revision. I think there is a fair amount of pressure on the university to add more residential down there, so I expect to see that reflected in the next master plan, though they may try to keep most or all the housing on Centennial private.

I am, however, concerned about the form of this project. Looking at their website, Bozzuto has done quite a few mixed-use projects, maybe they will incorporate some service retail. This could wind up as a nice, mixed use, urban 3-4 story low rise, with structured parking, or as a suburban apartment complex with a terrible site plan and lots of surface parking.

---

I used to hold the opinion that Centennial Campus was an outright urban design failure. I got that opinion because I'd pretty much only ever visited on weekends or at off hours, or before the school had begun to move the College of Engineering down there. This semester, though, I'm taking an afternoon class in EBII on Centennial, and that has changed my opinion a bit for the better.

The office section of campus leaves much to be desired. It has a lot of parking (at least it's all in decks, though). There's no retail or residential nearby, and very little transit use, so there's not much foot traffic on that part of campus. While there are plenty of flaws, it's definitely no brier creek either. The buildings are clustered pretty densely on a reasonably well thought out and walkable street grid with wide sidewalks, so there's potential for improvement as the campus grows and a variety of uses and destinations come online within walking distance.

The academic buildings all address both the street and the oval adequately. I find their architecture to be attractive (except for that damned BTEC), though I hope there is more variety introduced as the oval is built out. There actually is quite a lot of foot traffic during business/class hours. Transit use is high, as evidenced by the crowds that build up at the on-campus bus stops. The bike racks are always full. There's a steady trickle of pedestrians walking down Varsity towards the bus stops and neighborhoods on Avent Ferry too. This actually caught me by surprise. It makes it feel like there is a connection between Centennial and the city around it, a connection that I previously thought was missing entirely. And there's potential for it to get even better. Though it's not on the master plan, I can easily imagine the corner of Avent Ferry and Varsity getting built up in the future. Hopefully a similar connection can be established in other directions as well.

At the moment, on-campus retail and concessions are limited to two deli counters that serve pre-packaged sandwiches. The plan calls for a "town center" to be located on the shore of Lake Raleigh, at the foot of the oval, across Main Campus Drive from the future Centennial Campus library. This will be an easy walk from basically anywhere on campus. I would like to see some more convenience retail scattered throughout the campus, and some of the retail needs of Centennial should actually be addressed by way of walkable connections to off-site retail, the campus really is so big that it does make sense to have a substantial retail 'node' in the center. Given the town center's its proximity to the oval, it will no doubt do fine during the day, but I hope they incorporate lots of residential units in and around it as well. It will be dead at night and on the weekends if there aren't enough people living nearby, and if that happens, I will consider it a flop.

Anyway, I have lots more thoughts on Centennial Campus now that I've actually got a reason to go there regularly, but I'm out of time this evening so I guess I'll have to elaborate some other day. Let me sum it up this way: it's got flaws, but it's also got a lot of potential. It all hinges on how things move forwards from here. If they just build more parking and de-emphasize the connections to the rest of the city, then it won't improve much. If they concentrate on augmenting the connections that exist and creating new ones, and prioritize making Centennial into a real urban neighborhood instead of an office park and a sequestered academic enclave, it could wind up being pretty awesome.

[ncwebguy]

I think at some point and/or on some level, former NC State Board of Trustees chair Smedes York envisioned his Mission Valley Shopping Center as being the "town center" bridging the gap between traditional and Centennial campuses. But that has yet to happen, and the apartments on Centennial Parkway near Burger King are not helping the cause.

The newest residence hall on NC State campus is the Avent Ferry Complex, the former Mission Valley Inn that York sold the University so York wouldn't have to deal with its abestos problems.

10 years ago, plans called for grad student housing on Centennial, as they would be the only ones doing any work there, with undergraduate getting the space that grad students used to occupy on the traditional campus. But now that all of enginnering is moving to centennial, there will be a need for upper class undergraduate housing there. A mid-rise version of Wolf Village, with parking decks instead of lots, and street level retail would be nice along Avent Ferry and maybe Centennail Parkway to blur the city/academic boundary. Instead of the current "apartments here, shopping there, suface parking everywhere" layout.

They also were hoping for a monorail to connect traditional and centennnial campus, with a potential stop in Mission Valley to concentrate service retail and eateries there as a node. With a small convention center, hotel, and restaurant/banquet facilities on the lake near the golf course. Those plans kinda morphed into the current golf course/alumni center projects in place on the south side of Lake Raleigh.

[Jones_]

The whole wedge between Cetennial and Western Blvd seems like a wasted opportunity on top of just Centennial itself having some shortcomings. Varsity Drive has a nice connection to Western now that looks like its designed to handle alot of traffic...vehicular and pedestrian. The visitor center is also hanging off the edge by this intersection. NCSU not only owns the old Mission Valley Inn but just bought some more old apartments further down Avent Ferry near the Varsity crossing. It seems like Cetennial should push through Champion Court to connect to a realigned Fraternity Court, which in turn should line up with Marcom. Then also somehow wedge another road between Varsity and Main Campus heading north out of Centennial to line up with one of the entrances to Mission Valley. You'd have a wonderful short walk to lunch for hundreds of employees..its seems as is that driving to MV for lunch is the fastest best option. Developing this area as the center of the University makes sense since its between campuses, and can be done even if parts of the land are privately owned. UNCG has done this very successfully along Spring Garden.

[orulz]

The N&O is reporting that among other projects, the sale of bonds for the James B. Hunt library at Centennial Campus have been approved. The architect for the project was chosen almost a year ago, but the details of the project are apparently not public yet. I haven't seen anything regarding the design or even really the scope of the library yet. The university's web page isn't much help, either.

[DwnTwnRaleighGuy]

Acording to the N&O there was supposed to be the first meeting about the Hunt Library yesterday 1/21? Did anyone go? The second meeting is supposed to be tonight, the 22nd.

[architect77]

I apologize if this is old news, but here is the architectural firm that has been commissioned to design NC State's new library on Centennial Campus.

I don't care for much of their work, however I think this particular project is way cool:

http://www.snoarc.no/#/projects/27/false/culture/image/669/

[orulz]

Because of its location, what the Centennial Library will need to be is something that acts as a bridge between the academic oval, the town center, and the commercial part of Centennial Campus. It needs to relate well to all of them and above all make Centennial Campus seem lively and livable.

Based on Snohetta's portfolio, I'm not sure they can do anything other than design buildings to be radical monuments that stand by themselves. We'll have to see, though. It's always a problem, IMO; when you go for bleeding-edge architecture you run the risk of winding up with something striking but hostile to pedestrians and the street.

[DPK]

Some construction updates from this past Wednesday (02-04-2009). The big map has been annotated with the photo locations; number is directly over where the photos reference. I had wanted to grab a few more from a few other projects going on, but it was roughly 30 degrees out and these were all I could stand at that moment, lol.

1 - Partners Way Parking Deck II (Planned completion in fall of 2009 with space for 400 vehicles. Will go online before Engineering Building III completes next year.)

2 - Utility Work (Not quite sure what they're doing, but each corner has work being done. Traffic lights?)

3 - Access Connector Road (Not detailed on the map, but basically links the Alumni parking lot with the new Main Campus Drive extension.)

4 - Bridge Work

5 - Lonnie Poole Golf Course Entrance (Leads to parking and future club house.)

Edited February 7, 2009 by DPK

[orulz]

I really hate how Partners Way is going to be lined with ao many parking decks. I've e-mailed my displeasure over this to the university architect a couple of times. Half of what they build on Parters Way treats it like an alleyway, but the other half treats it like a nice street. The way that Venture Center did their parking decks (put them on a real alleyway) is much better.

I'm on Centennial once a week for a class and I didn't even realize they were extending Main Campus Drive. How about that!

[Jones_]

DPK, looks like they are starting the concrete forms for the lower walls. The footings are already poured and I see rebar set and ready to receive concrete. I don't know much about construction sequencing so have no idea why they would start with all four corners. Usually buildings with a subgrade level progress from the far side of the pit and build back towards the access ramp leading into the hole.

edit: or do you mean the photo below the caption...?

Edited February 8, 2009 by Jones133

[DPK]

DPK, looks like they are starting the concrete forms for the lower walls. The footings are already poured and I see rebar set and ready to receive concrete. I don't know much about construction sequencing so have no idea why they would start with all four corners. Usually buildings with a subgrade level progress from the far side of the pit and build back towards the access ramp leading into the hole.

edit: or do you mean the photo below the caption...?

Respective photos are below each caption.

As a side note, I still have no idea what they are doing. They're still out there but a lot of the fencing is now gone and they are just working on one corner now.

I'll try to get some updated pics tomorrow/Wednesday of all these and more since it's nicer outside now. I'd like to grab a couple of EBIII.

[orulz]

Courtesy of the N&O, we get our first look at the $126 million Hunt Library for Centennial Campus:

What I want to know is - where are all the bricks??

Rather than a conventional library with bookstacks that you browse by hand, the library will use a robotic storage and retrieval system that takes up lots less space. Conventional bookstacks are expensive to build because the books are so heavy, meaning that the floors must be heavily reinforced.

This robotic book storage system sounds neat and efficient, but there have been a number of occasions when I went to the shelf in the NCSU stacks dedicated to a particular subject and just pulled the books off the shelf and thumbed through them one by one until I found one that had what I was looking for. You can't really do that so well when a robot gets your book for you.

[JeffC]

Courtesy of the N&O, we get our first look at the $126 million Hunt Library for Centennial Campus:

What I want to know is - where are all the bricks??

Rather than a conventional library with bookstacks that you browse by hand, the library will use a robotic storage and retrieval system that takes up lots less space. Conventional bookstacks are expensive to build because the books are so heavy, meaning that the floors must be heavily reinforced.

This robotic book storage system sounds neat and efficient, but there have been a number of occasions when I went to the shelf in the NCSU stacks dedicated to a particular subject and just pulled the books off the shelf and thumbed through them one by one until I found one that had what I was looking for. You can't really do that so well when a robot gets your book for you.

If they build it as pictured in the paper today, Centennial Campus will finally have its architectural landmark (although I have always liked the design of the Textile School and associated plazas and how it relates to the stream it sits next to, some of the research buildings are absolute dreck. Park Alumni center, though certainly a very nice facility is rather cliche architecturally--obvious they were keeping it safe to preserve that wedding reception business.

[DanRNC]

I wonder how long it will take for the pot-bellied rednecks to put the kybosh on this thing? It will be a miracle if the building, as shown, ever gets built.

[DPK]

I wonder how long it will take for the pot-bellied rednecks to put the kybosh on this thing? It will be a miracle if the building, as shown, ever gets built.

Money is already approved, I doubt anyone can do anything at this point to stop it. Thankfully. I'm excited!

[DPK]

The leg of Main Campus Drive between Centennial Middle School and the Alumni Center is now open. I went ahead and highlighted the newly paved areas in the picture below. Note that they apparently (and economically) only paved half of this leg of Main Campus Drive (the lanes that will eventually be strictly for traffic headed from east to west). Coming from the east, the new leg narrows down to two lanes to passover the creek bridge just south of the Alumni Center.

You can distinguish this because the curbing is different after the road narrows on each side of the road. Also, before the bridge if you look on the left side of the road heading west, the road dead ends just before a future bridge section. Random entrances and the driveway to the future Chancellor's Residence have been paved in advance although nothing exists outside of what was cleared for staging purposes for this construction project.

The parking lot for the Golf Clubhouse is complete and open. At night it is lit and there are emergency call boxes positioned on the east and west sides of the lot. Land has been cleared for the future Clubhouse. The golf course itself appears to be complete and is now just maturing the grass in prep for the future opening.

The star on the map at the Golf Clubhouse I denoted to indicate one of my new favorite skyline views. I recommend everyone to go and check it out, as it's quite beautiful (especially at night/sunset)!

[orulz]

Looks like some of the infrastructure for the Centennial Campus Library is scheduled to begin construction in September, according to this presentation from earlier this month.

It has something that resembles a site plan but the perspective is a little odd.

The first phase is (you guessed it) the parking deck. Damn, Centennial Campus has a lot of enormous parking decks. I guess that 30 or 40 years from now they might be torn down and replaced with something better, something you can't really do with integrated underground parking decks.

[orulz]

Keystone Centennial is under construction at the corner of Main Campus and Varsity. It's a pretty underwhelming 3-story design that definitely fits with the centennial campus motifs of metal and red brick. It will include (of course) a new parking deck. For whatever reason they decided this building should be set back further from the street than Venture, which IMO makes this a comparatively poor design.

Some new renderings of the library here. Construction is supposed to start in the spring next year.

[DwnTwnRaleighGuy]

Some new renderings of the library here. Construction is supposed to start in the spring next year.

So far....outside ok, inside is...

Cold..uninviting...sterile...

[DPK]

So much fail going on over at Centennial Campus lately.