Duke's Central Campus

[DanRNC]

Everyone is probably familiar with Duke's East and West Campuses but not the eyesore known as Central Campus which is mostly run-down grad/married student housing. This area links the medical/biomed/science portion of West Campus along Erwin Road to 9th/Main St./East Campus as well as the Duke Gardens/Nasher area. The town council finally approved the plan but I haven't seen the actual plans. Maybe someone on here has? I hope they follow a model similar to Harvard's redevelopment of Allston link.

[rossgrady]

Everyone is probably familiar with Duke's East and West Campuses but not the eyesore known as Central Campus which is mostly run-down grad/married student housing. This area links the medical/biomed/science portion of West Campus along Erwin Road to 9th/Main St./East Campus as well as the Duke Gardens/Nasher area. The town council finally approved the plan but I haven't seen the actual plans. Maybe someone on here has? I hope they follow a model similar to Harvard's redevelopment of Allston link.

[DanRNC]

I think there were concessions made as far as square footage for retail spaces-this was mainly done from preventing Barnes and Noble and larger chains to set up shop. As a grad student I have to say I think Duke has done a decent job of including local business on campus (ie. Mad Hatters, Three Seasons Catering, Q-Shack, Sitar Palace, etc.) and hope they will continue this on Central Campus.

[DanRNC]

Just heard today that Duke will begin /demo/construction by the end of the year. Renderings should appear soon and I have seen a couple already. Phase I should be completed by 2009.

[DanRNC]

Found some preliminary renderings. The buildings will most likely be a cross between the Georgian style of East Campus blended with the Gothic of West Campus with a modern or contemporary twist.

[DanRNC]

The architectural firm of Pelli Clarke Pelli to be the lead designer of Central Campus.

Story

[urbanesq]

The architectural firm of Pelli Clarke Pelli to be the lead designer of Central Campus.

Story

[bullcity76]

It neat that such a famous name is involved in this, but frankly, I've never really understood why architects are given the lead on land planning projects (no offense to the AIA members on the site...) when their training is generally focused on building and structure rather than spatial arrangement, landforms and such. Seems to me it would be better to have a landscape architect or urban planning firm do the master plan and have the architects come along afterward to design the buildings that make up the component parts once the plan is complete.

[pack-man]

9th street should remain adjacent to whatever they decide, similar to hillsborough/franklin streets. connecting the two campuses with a great plan will improve Dukes problem that there are two campuses. NCSU will need to do this with Centennial campus as more schools make their way to the new campus.