For Duke engineers, it's out with the old, in with the new... sort of.
The renovation of the Teer Building, which will take place over the course of this year, is one of the steps that the Pratt School of Engineering is taking to expand the space available for students. The renovations will take place in two phases.
The first will begin in March and should be ready for the Fall 2008 classes, Senior Associate Dean for Education Tod Laursen wrote in an e-mail. The second phase will begin in summer of 2008 and will be finished by this time next year.
The renovations will pave the way for the construction of the new building called the Engineering Design Center, which will be located near the Levine Science Research Center and Teer on Science Drive.
The Teer renovations are being designed specifically with the construction of the EDC in mind, Laursen said. The EDC may connect with the two current buildings, wrapping around the LSRC.
Although the plans are not yet available for release, Laursen added that "there will probably be some cosmetic evolution" in Teer.
Pratt will be seeking approval for the Teer renovation plans from their Board of Trustees at the end of February, he said.
"The Board of Trustees approved a budget to proceed with an architectural planning study [for the EDC]," Pratt Interim Dean Rob Clark wrote in an e-mail.
Significant progress on the construction of the EDC will not be made until a new dean has been identified, Clark said.
"Overall, the space [in Teer] will include a new classroom accommodating about 50 students, a few new small seminar rooms, several project-based learning rooms, a 'hatchery' for students... to work with entrepreneurs and business specialists to spin their ideas and designs into the marketplace... and a learning commons, which we are designing collaboratively with the library," Laursen said.
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