As Duke continues to make plans to renovate Central Campus, its rival university farther down highway 15-501 has a long-term construction project in the works as well, though it has a slightly different focus than the undergraduate experience.
Over a span of 50 years, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill plans to create Carolina North, a new, sustainable mixed-use academic community focused mainly on providing space for small business start-ups and research facilities for UNC faculty, graduate students and post-doctoral students.
"Carolina North will enable and enhance the university's mission of education, research, public service and outreach and contribution to economic development," Jack Evans, executive director of Carolina North, wrote in an e-mail. "These contributions will be observed in the local community, but in addition, much more broadly across the state and beyond."
The entire Triangle area, including Duke, may also be impacted by the project.
"It will be beneficial [to Duke] by increasing the research intensiveness of our region and creating new opportunities for research collaborations," Provost Peter Lange wrote in an e-mail.
Evans said in a media presentation Thursday that immediate plans for the project focus around the 85,000 sq. ft. Innovation Center. The planning committee has already engaged in talks with a private contractor and hopes to start construction in early 2009.
The Innovation Center will provide rentable space for faculty members who have ideas for small businesses. Shared services, including access to computers, printers and other office supplies, as well as specific needs, such as wet labs for research, will be housed in the center, said Evans. He noted, however, that the complex will have no organizational connection to Research Triangle Park.
"We want to provide an opportunity to get companies off the ground only 1.5 miles from campus," Evans said, adding that the need for such space is an urgent need for UNC.
UNC has developed goals for a phase to be completed in the first 15 years of the project. A strong internal transit system, housing for faculty and graduate students and instructional space for graduate level courses are part of the eventual Carolina North plan. Creating restaurant and retail space should be underway six to 10 years into the project, Evans said.
Including space for undergraduates is not currently on the agenda. Evans said the academic structure of the university favors centrally-located classes and provides research opportunities across main campus, so moving departments to the new campus is undesirable. Evans added that UNC undergraduate students could potentially assist faculty and graduates with start-up companies or research at Carolina North.
The current Innovation Center plans and the 15-year outlook were recently approved by UNC's Board of Trustees. The start date of the first phase has not been determined and needs to be discussed with Chapel Hill's Town Council.
"It's an unusual project [in relation to the projects a town typically deals with]," Evans said. "It's a multi-year plan. We will [have to have] more complex discussions with the town."
Monthly community meetings have been held on UNC's campus since March 2007, and the focus of the planning committee is now shifting to preparing for presentation to the Town Council.
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