Editor's note: This is one of three articles on campus construction projects.
Although known for the medieval-era Gothic architecture on the Main Quadrangle, the University is continuously expanding and adapting to the modern age both in looks and functionality.
Duke’s campus has undergone massive changes in this summer alone. When students return to campus in the Fall, the Events Pavilion will be open and West Union will be closed. The Bryan Center will have a whole new look, as will the Gilbert-Addoms Down Under. All in all, the 57 construction projects are currently underway to revamp the Gothic Wonderland for students and faculty alike.
The Duke University Health System has also completed several major construction projects in the past couple of years. The Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans Center for Education provides a physical home for the School of Medicine, and the Medical Pavilion allows the hospital to expand patient care.
Check out The Chronicle’s breakdown of campus construction and how it will change the face of Duke’s campus and downtown Durham for years to come.
These days, students can leave for the summer and come back in the Fall to a campus they barely recognize.
Summer is always a season of high activity for construction at the University, but this year is particularly busy. There are currently 57 renovation and construction projects underway, said Paul Manning, director of the office of project management, noting that more work is happening this year than at any point he can recall in his nine-year tenure.
Although some of the projects are small, these large changes are part of a broader narrative of Duke advancing and expanding, said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations.
“We build for the future,” he said. “We plan for these buildings to be around for a hundred years or more—it’s a different way of looking at construction.”
Several large, long-term projects will be immediately noticeable to students returning to campus in the Fall—most notably the completion of work on the new Events Pavilion and the Bryan Center, as well as the renovations that are just beginning in the West Union Building and the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Construction for the Events Pavilion, located west of the Bryan Center near Union Drive and Towerview Road, began last year. The structure—a modern building featuring curtain walls of glass, inspired by the Von der Heyden Pavilion—stands out from the Gothic background of West Campus and is designed to provide space for student gatherings.
In years past, special events and meetings have typically been relegated to conference rooms on the lower level of the Bryan Center. In the future, the Events Pavilion will take over this role, possibly hosting events such as career fairs, sorority recruitment, dances and majors fairs, administrators have said.
For the next two years, however, the pavilion will host the dining and event venues displaced by the West Union renovations. West Union—previously home to eateries such as the Great Hall, Alpine Bagels and The Loop, as well as student organizations including the Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Life and the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture—will undergo two years of renovations beginning in the Fall.
The Center for LGBT Life will move from its location on the lower level of West Union to a more visible, permanent position in the Bryan Center, and the Mary Lou will relocate to Flowers Building—Wednesday night jazz included. The specifics of the new West Union and when it will be completed are still up in the air because of financial constraints.
The new West Union will provide a space that is intended to lend itself more easily to student interaction—a building that is notably more fluid and interconnected, with plenty of communal space, as opposed to the previous patchwork collection of nooks and crannies. The structure will also feature improved accessibility for those with disabilities.
The dining set-up of West Union will change as well. Although the Great Hall will return, Subway and Chick-fil-A will leave campus. Students will still be able to get their favorite pizzas from The Loop, which will move to the Bryan Center to occupy the former location of the Armadillo Grill, which will also not return to campus. The new dining arrangement in the West Union will have increased seating and will focus on block-sized restaurant units, inspired by Mario Batali’s Eataly in New York City.
The Duke Endowment, a philanthropic foundation independent of the University, provided an $80 million donation to fund the Events Pavilion and West Union, as well as the work on the Bryan Center, Page Auditorium and Baldwin Auditorium. Renovations on the Bryan Center and Baldwin will be complete in time for the upcoming semester, work on Page Auditorium is not expected to begin until after the remodel of West Union has finished.
Other University projects that will be complete in time for the 2013-14 school year include a $31.5 million remodeling of Gross Hall—formerly Gross Chemical Laboratory—and a $7 million renovation of Gilbert-Addoms dormitory. Gross Hall will now house the political science department, and freshman dorm Gilbert-Addoms will feature both improved living spaces and an updated version of its basement area, the Down Under.
Ongoing renovations to the Rubenstein Library are the final step of the Perkins Project—a plan to redesign Duke’s West Campus libraries that has been in progress for more than a decade. The project has so far resulted in the construction of the Bostock Library, von der Heyden Pavilion and the Link.
The Rubenstein, connected to Perkins and home to Duke’s rare books and manuscripts, will expand its collection capacity and classroom space, as well as renovate historic reading rooms. During the renovations, students will still have access to Rubenstein materials, which have been moved to the third floor of Perkins Library.
The University did not necessarily plan for this summer’s assortment of projects to occur all at once, Schoenfeld noted. Some of the current projects are the result of long-range planning, whereas others were being discussed prior to the economic downturn of 2008 and were then temporarily put on hold, Schoenfeld said.
He noted that Duke consistently works to anticipate and accommodate the changing needs of its schools and departments. The current spate of construction follows $375 million of work that was done during the 2000s, including the French Family Science Center, the Nasher Museum of Art and the Coach K Center for Academic Excellence.
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