Members of Academic Council heard an update about the upcoming West Union Building renovations at their meeting Thursday.
The renovation of the West Union Building, funded by an $80 million gift to the University from the Charlotte-based Duke Endowment, is one of three upcoming projects charged with revamping buildings part of the campus’ original construction, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta said during a presentation to the council. The presentation was similar to the one delivered to students in October.
“As complicated as the nature of the structure and architecture of the buildings are, even more complicated are [West Union’s] occupants and their needs,” Moneta said.
The project is a response to Duke’s lack of public spaces for both students and faculty, Executive Vice President Tallman Trask added.
One of the most pressing issues driving the renovation is the building’s current dining capacity, Moneta said. West Union, which currently provides 6,000 meals per day, is predicted to lack adequate dining space for students in five to 10 years.
He added that the new West Union floor plan allows for 900 seats—a significant increase from the roughly 650 seats currently available. The number of eateries will remain approximately the same.
Designs for the renovated West Union are still in conceptual planning, though preliminary designs incorporate a new marche structure with block-sized restaurant units, Moneta said. This setup is modeled after Chef Mario Batali’s Eataly, a city block of restaurants in New York City.
“We are set to create one of the best dining experiences imaginable—one in which students will be inspired to freely engage with both faculty and other students and will also be appropriate for the new housing model,” Moneta said.
The upcoming months will be devoted to the relocation of student centers—such as the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture and the Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Life—that will be displaced by the renovation, Moneta said. The renovations to West Union are scheduled to begin summer 2013.
Berndt Mueller, professor of physics, said there should be focus on spaces where faculty and student could meet during meals.
“The current Focus program allows for a strong interaction between faculty and students and seems to be working well on East Campus,” Mueller said. “I presume that there would be a similar interest level to recreate these meetings for senior capstone seminars in [the new West Union Building].”
In other business:
Council members also heard a presentation from Deborah Jakubs, Rita Di Giallonardo Holloway University librarian and vice provost for library affairs.
Jakubs said that due to an increased demand for digitization and data visualization in the past year, the University libraries will now offer data management consultations and public overhead scanners. In addition, administrators have hired three new library staff members—the head of digital scholarship, data visualization coordinator and digital humanities technology consultant—in response to students’ demands for more specialized consultations.
Jakubs also presented updates on the renovations to the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. The Rubenstein Library is the final part of the Perkins project, a multi-year library renovation project that began in 2000.
All library staff and collections would be relocated by December 2012, and the Rubenstein Library will move to a temporary space on the third level of Perkins, Jakubs said. The grand re-opening of the Rubenstein Library is planned for early 2015, though the timeline is variable.
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