Central rebuilding may be years off

As undergraduates prepare to choose their housing for next year, campus-wide attention is focusing on the construction of the West-Edens Link, the approaching overhaul of West Campus and how the two projects will affect student life.

Absent from these discussions, however, is the condition of the Central Campus apartments, seen by both residents and administrators as nearing the time for demolition and reconstruction. Built in the early 1970s, the apartments house mostly undergraduates and some graduate students.

"The apartment buildings are getting near the end of their useful life, and I expect we will begin planning in three to five years," said Tallman Trask, executive vice president. "The real question is what form will the plan take.... I sense a general agreement that what we have now is not what should be there."

Guiding any planning will likely be the campus' Master Plan, which-while short on specifics and timelines-does outline a vague vision for Central's future. Released in May 2000, the plan calls for higher density housing with mixed commercial use and for increased interaction with the rest of campus.

"You might want to have facilities that service all, like restaurants, apartments, a food store, anything that might be in a nice village," said University Architect John Pearce, who also suggested that a future plan might take advantage of the neighboring Sarah P. Duke Gardens and the planned art museum off of Anderson Street.

But it remains unclear exactly when Trask and other planners will flesh out and implement the Master Plan's vision.

"The renovations that are set to begin on West are intended to address long-term plumbing and electrical problems. Deficiencies of that sort don't exist on Central Campus," said Michael Scott, assistant director of housing management. As a result, Scott said, the focus has been to keep up regular maintenance of the apartments-minor repairs, replacing furniture and repainting.

He added that part of Central's maintenance has comprised relatively large investments that would go to waste if the whole campus were redone. A recent $1 million replacement of the air conditioning system, for example, will last at least 20 years.

"Long term, I think the buildings are long past the point where they should be renovated," Parker said. "I'm not saying that the apartments on Central are dumps-I enjoy living there-but you find the management making lots of repairs. It's no use wasting money trying to keep them up."

But Pearce said the terms of the decision are entirely different, explaining "the condition of those buildings is a non-issue." Instead, he said, Central renovations would come as a result of a need to improve the overall quality of the campus.

"I see Duke University having a West Campus, and I see Duke University having an East Campus, but I see a Central Campus in name only," Pearce said.

Whether the lack of major improvements is causing Central to become a less popular housing option with students is unclear, although the number of undergraduates choosing Central did drop from 827 in fall 1999 to 796 in fall 2000.

But Shameika Taylor, treasurer of Central Campus Council, said most residents are happy with their apartments.

"I'm pleased with the apartments, and I find visitors have been, too," the junior said. "The problem I see with the apartments is that renovations should be consistent. Some people should not have new refrigerators when other people don't."

Taylor also suggested bringing more social space to Central, where past administrative attempts to add programming venues have met with little student interest. "Central residents are always going to West or East to do things," she said. "I think it would be better if people had a place to go and just hang out."

Investment in Central has taken a back seat as new construction currently is focused on the WEL, which will eventually replace Trent Dormitory as undergraduate housing. Trask said that was a conscious decision by the University, reflecting its current priorities.

"We wanted more students to have the experience of living on West. It creates more unity within each class and it's an important part of the Duke experience," Trask said. "[Central] is on our agenda, but I don't think it should have come before West."

In addition to the WEL, several other projects could stand in the way of a Central rebuilding. The $37 million WEL project, the planned overhaul of Main West Campus dormitories, the new $18 million football building, planned renovations of Perkins Library that will likely reach $50 million, construction of a new engineering plaza and other projects are already putting long-term financial and construction burdens on the University.

"There's a lot of concern as to how much construction we can have at the same time, but we've been careful to sequence the projects so that not too many overlap," Trask said.

Aside from funding constraints, construction projects raise difficulties for the areas around them. In addition to being eye-sores, projects can significantly disrupt traffic and parking, as was the case when the WEL project displaced one of the main undergraduate parking lots.

Trask said construction is further complicated by last fall's passage of $3.1 billion in bonds for public higher education infrastructure in North Carolina, which will provide money to modernize the state system's buildings. "There may not always be enough construction companies available to do all the work," Trask said.