NCSU's Centennial & Biotech Campuses

[orulz]

I rather like the library. It's about time NCSU got a new building that's not postmodern brick-with-metal. The interior looks great, I don't get that cold feeling at all. The lobby just needs more furniture than is depicted in the rendering: desks, chairs, couches, etc. I'd like to see more entrances (this has two), but then DH Hill actually has only one real entrance and I understand the need for security. The north and south ends of the building are its weakest parts, but I think this is set in stone by now.

I do, however, have criticisms about the overall layout and density of Centennial Campus. They decided to do their own internally-focused thing with the original master plan rather than to try to connect it with the city. That ship set sail years ago though so I'll talk about what's been built. There are some great spaces, and some that have the potential to be great spaces. The university also seems to be warming up to the idea of mixing more retail into the academic areas, which is good because that's where it's needed.

However, the master plan still doesn't call for nearly enough residential space. The campus needs to be lived in to shed its sterile feel. As far as I know University Housing does not plan on building anything down there whatsoever: some time ago I recall reading that the university wants to "get out of the housing business" after Wolf Village, and therefore, what little housing is actually planned, will be built by private developers. I would prefer a mix, with far more units and far less parking than the master plan seems to cal for.

I'd also prefer the university were a bit more picky about how all the individual projects flow together to form a cohesive whole. I'm referring to the lack of uniform setbacks and the way that buildings are not all oriented along the same axis as the streets. That makes the campus feel incoherent. Along Varsity and Main Campus, Venture is an example of how things should look. But Red Hat, Keystone, and the the Wildlife Resources Commission buildings are all doing their own thing with some random setback and/or orientation.

Nice places:

• The north end of the Oval including EBI - EBIII, including the drop off space.
  
• Main Campus Drive south of Varsity, by Venture and the College of Textiles.
  
• The plaza at the College of Textiles and the bridge over the creek.
  
• The greenway along the creek.
  
• Venture center is pretty well executed.
  

Places with potential:

• The rest of the oval
  
• The town center and Lake Raleigh "waterfront" area
  
• The entry at Avent Ferry & Varsity. This isn't on the master plan but this corner, if developed properly, has the potential to be a good gateway between the campus and the city.
  

Missed opportunities:

• Partners way. Although EBI does a pretty good job here, and the streetscape and overall width suggests that it is a fairly major street, everything else treats it like an alley. According to the master plan, the entire west side will be lined with nothing but parking decks: seven of them by my count. The BTEC looks awful from Partners.
  
• Oval Drive. The only building on Oval Drive so far (the BTEC) is the weakest building on centennial campus overall.
  
• All the f*ing parking decks. To some extent they are a "necessary" evil since they're not really there for the students at all but for the office employees. But sheesh, couldn't they do a better job integrating them with the rest of campus?
  
• North Shore. The only residential component of Centennial Campus so far remains incomplete, unfortunately isolated, and goes for the wrong market. (High-end townhomes? Why not student housing?)
  

[Jones_]

Ignoring the need for affordable housing this serves for a moment, I always thought a key property not brought into Centennials design is the Mission Valley apartments. That wedge of property is what divides Centennial Campus from Avent Ferry Road and hence kills any chance of using Avent Ferry as a sculpted connector between the two campuses. The University bought some apartments across from the Burger King a while ago (forgot the name) but using those apartments and the wedge Mission Valley apartments are on, the Corridor of Avent Ferry down to Varsity could be reworked to look like a university street...god knows it needs some safety improvements through there.

[orulz]

New Raleigh did a post on this library. They linked to this TBJ article that mentions NCSU wants to build an approximately 1150-bed residential complex (possibly to be managed by university housing) on Centennial, somewhere near the library.

1150 beds is a lot, but I'd like to see still more. For example, on main campus, the three large West Campus dorms alone house over 2200.

[ChiefJoJo]

New Raleigh did a post on this library. They linked to this TBJ article that mentions NCSU wants to build an approximately 1150-bed residential complex (possibly to be managed by university housing) on Centennial, somewhere near the library.

1150 beds is a lot, but I'd like to see still more. For example, on main campus, the three large West Campus dorms alone house over 2200.

If they do, let's hope it's much more urban than Wolf Village. Centennial campus needs to get away from the auto-centric suburban office park paradigm that has guided its development thus far, and move to a truly mixed use urban center that can be effectively served by transit and connected to main campus. It's ironic that a university that is supposed to be on the forefront of technology and innovation is stuck in a mid-late 20th century campus planning model.

[rolly]

Orulz, thanks for the link. $100 million for a dorm complex is quite a project, considering the same amount got us the RBC Tower in downtown.

[orulz]

If they do, let's hope it's much more urban than Wolf Village. Centennial campus needs to get away from the auto-centric suburban office park paradigm that has guided its development thus far, and move to a truly mixed use urban center that can be effectively served by transit and connected to main campus. It's ironic that a university that is supposed to be on the forefront of technology and innovation is stuck in a mid-late 20th century campus planning model.

Wasn't the "oval" master plan for Centennial Campus drawn up in 1989? That would explain a lot. Though I do think they've perhaps followed it too rigidly.

[orulz]

NCSU gives us a pretty good idea of what will be built on campus over the next few years. There are only a few big projects. They are:

Centennial Campus:

• Hunt Library (including parking deck) - completed by 7/2012
  
• Centennial student housing - completed by 6/2013
  
• Non-wovens institute - completed by 8/2012 (on Centennial but not sure where; probably next to Textiles)

Main Campus:

• Talley Student Center renovation and expansion - completed by 6/2014
  
• North Hall renovation - completed by 7/2012 (this is the dorm on Hillsborough Street)
  
• Student Health Center expansion - completed by 7/2011

Craig Davis also hopes to make progress on Alliance Center. This will go right across the street from Venture on Centennial, and will look very similar architecturally.

[orulz]

Looks like Centennial has another tenant. Skema, a French business school that supposedly has a pretty good reputation, is establishing its US outpost on Centennial. They will occupy 30,000 square feet in an existing building until they can build their own 40,000 sq ft building. The US facility will accommodate as many as 600 foreign students.

Read the article.

[RALNATIVE]

Looks like Centennial has another tenant. Skema, a French business school that supposedly has a pretty good reputation, is establishing its US outpost on Centennial. They will occupy 30,000 square feet in an existing building until they can build their own 40,000 sq ft building. The US facility will accommodate as many as 600 foreign students.

Read the article.

This is actually excellent news. One of the best ways for an area to gain more international exposure is to serve as host to a reputable foreign academic instituion.

Here's some information regarding their decision to select Raleigh, posted on their website:

SKEMA

Edited May 19, 2010 by RALNATIVE

[Gard]

I was just reading that....VERY good news for the city, university and the state. This could help attract more top international talent to the area, in addition to companies from French-speaking nations. We could also no doubt see an increased demand for French cuisine. I see they also are partnering with the RTP foundation, along with a number of its tenants, and are building relations with Duke. It could also help increase demand for international flights to/from RDU. Just another thing to help Raleigh become and even larger melting pot

[RALNATIVE]

I was just reading that....VERY good news for the city, university and the state. This could help attract more top international talent to the area, in addition to companies from French-speaking nations. We could also no doubt see an increased demand for French cuisine. I see they also are partnering with the RTP foundation, along with a number of its tenants, and are building relations with Duke. It could also help increase demand for international flights to/from RDU. Just another thing to help Raleigh become and even larger melting pot

Not only the things that you've pointed out above, but also the fact their decision to locate here will prompt other international organizations to undoubtedly follow suit. For me one of the biggest benefits, like you indicated, will be the advancement of cultual diversity that will result.

[orulz]

The blog southwestraleigh.com has a nice photo tour of the Hunt Library on Centennial Campus.

Also, digging through board minutes on NCSU's website, it looks like the private apartment complex planned on campus will be called the Greens at Centennial Campus, will not be targeted at students, will be 300 units on 10 acres, and will be 5 stories tall but fairly suburban in character.

Last, looks like NCSU recently got funding to complete the Centennial Campus Greenway. This will leave a short (half-mile) gap to the end of the Upper Walnut Creek Trail (which ends at Trailwood).

[Jones_]

Is that greenway on the right of way that hugs I-40?. The trail along Centennial Parkway already gets you around to Lake Johnson at least.

[orulz]

This PDF, which is an agenda from a NCSU BOT meeting, includes lots of goodies about future developments on Centennial Campus. It includes renderings for both the private apartment complex (The Greens at Centennial Campus) and the university-owned student housing project. The Greens is pretty underwhelming, but the university-owned housing looks pretty nice.

One thing that we've known for quite a while based on looking at the university's master plans for Centennial is that they're planning heaps of parking decks and this continues that. This amounts to saying that a lack of parking is a serious drawback of main campus, and that they're trying to rectify it by building heaps of parking decks on Centennial.

I disagree, and think that they're overbuilding parking. Show me one major university that doesn't have a parking "problem." It comes with the territory. Bringing tens of thousands of people close enough together in order to create a functioning academic ecosystem means pushing cars out, out of necessity.

[Jones_]

^ my first thought was that they were trying to maintain as much of the office "park" atmosphere as possible by stacking parking instead of paving over every square inch of ground. The landscaping is pretty nice in places and the wetlands preservation efforts, while driven by Neuse buffer rules, look enhanced beyond just leaving the areas alone. But I am sure too, as you point out, that pitching the campus is easier when you can say, 'plenty of parking'

[DanRNC]

Centennial Campus seems to be on a roll as of late. 

 

http://www.wral.com/-climate-hub-at-ncsu-to-help-rural-areas-adapt/13360174/

[DanRNC]

It looks like they are finally getting that hotel/conference centre on campus.

 

http://www.wral.com/boutique-hotel-slated-for-ncsu-s-centennial-campus/13798296/

[DanRNC]

I am putting my money on this going to Centennial Campus as RTP appears to be ruled out.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/techflash/2014/08/ibm-exec-an-innovation-center-is-coming-to-the.html

[Jones_]

Not sure how long this has been in the works http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/real-estate/2015/03/keystone-research-centennial-campus-raleigh.html

[BHennington]

 

[Photo credit NCSU]

Edited April 11, 2015 by BHennington

[JeffC]

Ugh, is there a higher concentration of bland, institutional architecture anywhere in the city?  Is there a single building on that campus OTHER than the Hunt Library that anyone thinks will appear in coffee table books about Raleigh landmarks published 50 years from now (heck, even 20 years from now...)

[Spatula]

A higher concentration of bland can be found outside the beltline, increasing the further out you go.

[ctl]

There are a lot of gutless architects, gutless commercial developers, and gutless clients. 

[Jones_]

I am just aggravated by the zero attempt to connect it to any other part of the City. 

Centennial parkway to Maywood Ave anyone? Partner's Way to Nazareth? Punch Blair through to it's other end on campus. Pullen to Oval is taking decades. Face any of the Buildings out to Centennial? For crying out loud...

[Justin6882]

I work at State and I heard at a meeting recently that they're supposed to start Pullen to Oval very soon.