The Board of Trustees this month unanimously selected Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects as the master designer for the comprehensive Central Campus project, which has been in discussion since 2000.
The firm previously designed the Schwartz-Butters Athletic Center, Wilson Recreation Center, the Sheffield Tennis Center and Krzyzewskiville.
"We are delighted with the news and are looking forward to working with the Duke and Durham communities to plan a livable, harmonious and sustainable Central Campus," Cesar Pelli, PCPA's founder, told Duke News. "Duke is a great university that already has two wonderful campuses. To design a third will be a challenge and makes the assignment more exciting."
The integration of Central with East and West campuses has been a tangible goal since 2002, when Executive Vice President Tallman Trask first unveiled plans to renovate the 200-acre middle campus. The project is expected to take 20 and 50 years.
Initially, the development's purpose was to replace housing, but programming committees broadened the scope of the project in 2005.
"Central Campus should not be about building dormitory space," President Richard Brodhead said. "It should be about having a vision of education as a very vibrant integrated experience and then building the facilities that make that possible."
City Council unanimously approved Duke's rezoning request in January, giving it permission to rezone the area with a university-college designation, which allows a mix of academic, residential, restaurant and retail facilities.
The search for a master architect began in March, when University Architect John Pearce compiled a list of 100 of the top architectural firms in the nation. Senior administrators and the Trustees' Building and Grounds Committee then narrowed it to a short list of 11.
Concept plans for Central Campus should become public in early 2008, Pearce added. He said changes can be expected from the original vision because of the redevelopment of the nature of the project. Pearce emphasized that there has never been a rigid timeline for the project.
"When the initial designs were proposed in 2002, Central Campus was identified as a 'University Village,'" he said. "Its primary focus was housing with 'retail' services necessary to support the undergraduate residents. More recently, programs have surfaced that include academic initiatives and institutes."
Although some administrators originally had hoped ground would be broken as early as summer 2007, under the new plan, infrastructure work is more likely to begin in 2008.
"What happened last year is our plans became slightly more ambitious," Brodhead said. "We realized we needed an architectural plan that matched the scale of our educational ambitions. We're doing so much building here, and there's a way of doing buildings where it's all about the building. But in a better scheme, facilities are all about the experience they enable."
The design phase is expected to take at least six months, and buildings could be open by 2010 or 2011.
"Developing the right design for the goals is Duke's priority," Pearce said. "Breaking ground on the infrastructure-the utilities and roads-will not occur this summer. This is the 'stuff' that supports the vision. The professionals will be ready to act-design and construct-when the design and the funding is approved by the Trustees."
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