Bring on the sledgehammers and dump trucks.
After over two years of planning, the University will officially begin constructing the new West Campus plaza in the coming weeks. The project, dubbed “the plaza at Duke,” will involve destroying the Bryan Center walkway and replacing it with a 40,000-square-foot elevated space that will connect the West Union Building, Page Auditorium and the Bryan Center. It is slated for completion by Fall 2006.
At a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday afternoon, a group of the University’s top brass, faculty, staff and students celebrated the upcoming construction of what administrators hope will become the hub of West Campus. Addressing the crowd on the walkway, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta said the social atmosphere of the ceremony reflected the “camaraderie” the plaza is intended to generate on campus.
“I’m looking very much forward to the community enjoying the fruits of our labor as we enjoy seeing this vista disappear and the new vista of a wonderful gathering space emerge over the next few months,” he said.
President Richard Brodhead also noted the unifying potential of the plaza. With seating and spaces that could be used in a variety of capacities, Moneta, Brodhead and other officials anticipate the functions of the plaza will largely be decided by the students.
“If there is occasionally dancing here, if there are plays here, if there is music here, if there is food and other things here, so much the better because those are the very nature of community,” Brodhead said.
Brodhead also emphasized what an aesthetic improvement the plaza will make to the campus, recalling the first time he saw the current concrete walkway.
“I looked at it, and all I could say was, ‘What the hell is that?’” Brodhead said, noting that the chute is “narrow, brutish and long.”
Administrators sliced a cake decorated to mimic an aerial view of the plaza at the ceremony, but the slicing of the walkway will not begin for several weeks.
Moneta said construction will start near the edge of the Chapel Gardens, where workers will fill one of the Bryan Center’s loading docks with dirt to level the ground and provide room to plant trees. The walkway will then be cut into sections and removed by cranes.
Students should expect noise during construction, but the most disruptive parts of the process will ideally take place during academic breaks.
Access to the Bryan Center through the current walkway entrance will not be available during construction. Officials initially hoped to keep the door clear, Moneta explained, but the construction company said it will not be possible once the project is underway because “it’s going to be such a mess.” The entrances next to Alpine Atrium, Griffith Film Theater and the Bryan Center parking lot will still be available.
A new, raised wooden walkway along the outside of the Great Hall will eventually connect the plaza to the Chapel Quadrangle. Due to financial constraints, however, Moneta said initial construction will extend the walkway only to the wall of the Flowers Building and not through it.
The project is expected to cost no more than $10 million, but administrators remain vague when discussing the financial details of the plaza.
Treat Harvey, major gifts officer for student affairs, said the University currently has $75,000 in confirmed gifts from unnamed donors and several verbal commitments from other prospects.
Moneta said there is “a significant prospect out there” who could potentially provide a naming gift—a minimum of $5 million dollars that guarantees the plaza will be named after the donor. Executive Vice President Tallman Trask said there is a donor who may offer a gift that would fund a substantial portion of the project.
Since officials first presented plans for the project in October 2004, the anticipated cost and size of the plaza have changed several times. In its most ambitious form, the plaza was deemed a 60,000-square-foot “village” and expected to cost $15 million. But construction was delayed in the summer of 2004 when University officials questioned the feasibility of the project due to a lack of funding and potential engineering complications in the plaza’s design.
The University then shifted gears and began retooling its plans. The Office of Student Affairs hired a development official to focus specifically on raising money for the plaza and similar projects. Officials also altered the design of the plaza to reduce costs. Construction changes included avoiding the unearthing of utilities and retaining the concrete posts that support the current walkway, Moneta said.
The Board of Trustees approved the revised plans in December 2004.
At Wednesday’s ceremony, Brodhead said that after viewing “many, many iterations” of plans for the plaza, he hopes the final product will become the “connective tissue” of West Campus.
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