The construction of the Events Pavilion will mark the start of major campus changes, administrators said.
Spectators gathered on the Bryan Center Plaza as Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, senior Alex Swain, president of Duke Student Government and Steve Nowicki, dean and vice provost of undergraduate education, spoke to mark the upcoming construction. Construction on the pavilion—which will house dining and event venues during West Union Building renovations—is scheduled to be completed summer 2013, at which point West Union construction will begin. The University’s larger construction project will also include renovations to the Bryan Center.
“This heralds the start of three years of work,” Moneta said. [The pavilion] really is the lead project on behalf of a dramatic revitalization of the student experience on campus.”
Although the University is waiting for formal building permits from Durham, city officials are well-aware of the project, and there is little doubt that the ground-breaking will take place next week, Moneta said.
Once construction is complete, the pavilion—located west of the Bryan Center near Union Drive and Towerview Road—will serve as a space for student gatherings, which may include career fairs, majors fairs, sorority recruitment and dances, he noted.
The University received $80 million to entirely fund its construction projects from the Duke Endowment in March 2011. West Union will be entirely rebuilt with the exception of three historic locations—the Great Hall, the Cambridge Inn, which now houses Alpine Bagels, and the Kilgo archway, which leads onto the Bryan Center Plaza walkway, Moneta said. Renovations to West Union and the accompanying changes to the Bryan Center will create new student meeting spaces.
“In the 23 years [I’ve spent at Duke], I’ve never seen something that is going to be as physically transformational as this suite of projects is going to be in terms of really affecting the lives of undergraduates in a number of really positive ways,” Nowicki said. “This in concert with a number of other things going on at the University are going to take Duke as an undergraduate experience to a new level.”
Moneta noted that construction on the pavilion will not disrupt student life.
“It will be fun to watch it go up with little to no impact,” Moneta said in an interview. “We built [Keohane Quadrangle 4E] right in the middle of a residential quad with almost no interruption. It’s the same company.”
The official launch—heralded by the release of blue and white balloons at the nearby construction site—was announced by Swain.
“On behalf of Duke Student Government, we are excited to work with all parties involved to make the undergraduate experience as wonderful as possible, starting with this project,” Swain said before the balloons were released.
Both Moneta and Nowicki stressed the broader opportunities the construction projects will present to the Duke community. Nowicki specifically mentioned DukeEngage and DukeImmerse as programs that integrate extracurricular activities and learning, noting that the new campus will promote these kinds of programs.
“Duke is forging a new path for thinking about the undergraduate experience educationally as a really integrated whole,” Nowicki said.
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