It makes sense to focus on daily campus users, sure, but I feel like we could have more than 4% of survey respondents be from outside of academia. That’s especially the case if corporate tenants on Centennial Campus are also going to be pushed into that category.
I’m coming from an expectation that NCSU should act more like UNC (as a Carolina-based grad student in a joint-degree program with State). With just examples off the top of my head, UNC actively sought out feedback from local residents for new buildings with direct impacts on the downtown community, a private-public partnership in an opportunity zone, and for their master plan update right before the pandemic. Plus, Chapel Hill’s zoning laws require UNC to give the town semiannual updates to development projects, so there’s a responsibility for the school and its neighboring residents to have and communicate shared interests. I know Raleigh’s not a college town and is not as tied to NCSU compared to Chapel Hill, but I still think there’s a ton that the city and its residents could gain from closer coordination.
I can understand Spring Hill being a low priority for the university since there’s obvious infrastructure improvements that need to come first. But does the commercial real estate industry see it the same way?
I’m surprised there isn’t more red dots on the ‘difficult to navigate as a pedestrian’ map on Avent Ferry. One of my years at NC State I lived at the U-Suites complex and rode the apartment bus to campus everyday. I just remember vividly our bus driver frantically breaking multiple times to avoid hitting students from the various apartments along Avent Ferry (after Trailwood going towards Western) running across the road to get towards Centennial Campus.
I’m not sure how to fix that though. Avent Ferry is a long, winding stoplight-less section right there. Not sure if more lights with crosswalks is the answer?
I don’t think it’s fair to compare UNC with NCSU. The environment is just so different and how the universities interact with the city is also very different (I think somewhat intentionally). If you were to have a representative sample of the people who have interactions on campus, I think 4% outside of academia is probably pretty close.
Now, how that will and should change based on the developments on Centennial Campus I have no clue.
I don’t think Spring Hill is a low priority for commercial real estate, I just don’t think the right thing has hit yet. The fact that Amazon was looking there is a big deal so clearly someone sees the value. I also don’t think the university is going to let just anyone come and develop that area so there is probably some push and pull.
Check item 4 on the master plan (this is the previous one, so it could change). Looks like almost a bike/pedestrian greenway system is the current thought for how to solve it.
I’m curious if they plan on doing anything closer to Varsity/Centennial entrance? From a safety perspective I hope something gets done, but this is a start. The Western/Avent Ferry intersection is kinda sketchy too. I used to have friends at College Inn and I’d hear horror stories trying to cross that intersection.
Coming down Avent Ferry via Trailwood I very vividly remember one day I thought some poor kid running to Centennial was a goner. Some cars had stopped to let him run across the road while our bus driver didn’t see him until the last second but thankfully slammed on the brakes in time.
Yeah, I see that crossing improving as well as the Dan Allen crossing to try to have a better interface between main campus and Greek Village. Especially with all of the upgrades happening over there right now…
I believe both of those intersections (really any Western crossing) have been identified as bad spots by students, staff, faculty, really everyone in the current masterplan.
I know its not NC State property, but I think my preferred location for the eSports Arena would be at a redeveloped DoubleTree site next to the Y on Hillsborough St. Close to campus, bus & bike transit, Village District, and downtown. Could be at the base of new 12-story hotel and/or residential building.
Two of the areas in deepest red on the “want to transform” are Dabney/Cox Halls and Broughton Hall, which are roughly next to each other across Stinson Dr just north of the railroad tracks (and next to Williams Hall, which desperately needs a complete overhaul and got no love at all on the survey, sadly).
Broughton is due to be completely renovated (that process may have already started; most offices have relocated) and to the best of my knowledge the building program and design is already complete. However, it’s going to be done much sooner than Dabney/Cox, and since the programming was done before the gaming arena (I’ll be just curmudgeonly enough to not use the term “esports” since it’s not a damn sport, but people should do what they love*) was even on the radar. The two small/crummy additions on the south side of the building are going to be demolished and replaced with a big shiny new addition that will include lots of lab space (chemistry), but the original part of the building that faces north is going to be renovated before the addition is built (or at any rate it starts first; it may not finish before work starts on the addition).
The long-planned airbridge over the rails from Talley will connect to to the new addition (again, whether this is going to happen at the same time or after construction is complete I don’t know). It seems to me, if work hasn’t already begun on this building, that the new gaming arena should really be built as a part of the new addition to Broughton. It will require the chemistry department to give up some of the new office and lab space that they are expecting, and what the university should do to make up for that is to rebuild Cox and Dabney, and move that up the priority list.
I don’t know what the plans are for those two aging hulks. When they knocked down Harrelson and replaced it with a little park area they said it was temporary and they were going to build a new classroom building in that area. Is that still really the plan? Couldn’t say. I signed up for the virtual town hall this afternoon so maybe I’ll learn something about that. But honestly they could build a very nice new classroom building there and just blow up Dabney and Cox (literally no one would complain, not even Messrs. Dabney and/or Cox), and replace them with a smaller facility for the chemistry department, complete with an airbridge connection across Stinson to Broughton.
Honestly for $12MM they have to shoehorn this new arena into an existing structure or include it as part of an already-funded new construction project (of which Broughton is the only one I know that makes any sense at all). If as folks have suggested the facility would likely be used by students when not hosting events, putting it down on Centennial would be a huge mistake. I thus fully expect Randy to do exactly that.
*Within moral and ethical boundaries yada yada yada
Alas, very little new information presented. But they do want to close Stinson Dr through that part of campus, which should have probably been done 30 years ago. And there is still a building programmed for the former Harrelson site, although it’s considered “long range”. No info whatsoever on the gaming arena, and when I asked, the response was that the planning office is just starting to look at it. Maybe it was as unexpected to them as it was to us.
Rezoning to 7 floors coming up for big site on Varsity Dr near McKimmon Center/ Greek Village…
I’m guessing that whole area around Avent Ferry/ Centennial Campus will explode with these stick-built 6 floor apartment buildings as the aging existing ones reach the end of their service lifes.
Anyone attend the planning meeting this week? Interested in hearing how things have progressed since the last update, which has some interesting Centennial tidbits. Prior ones for those that didn’t see below. A lot of interest in the land up towards Spring Hill connecting with Dix.
Interesting article here on the TBJ for the Wolfpack folks. Looks like NC State is beginning the process of planning to move the business school from Nelson Hall to a new facility to built on Centennial Campus somewhere. As someone who did Business Administration/Finance at NCSU, I spent a lot of time in that building and didn’t realize it was built in 1938. Article states might take up to 10 years as the school is going to look for NC General Assembly money to help…as they did with UNC’s Kenan Flagler expansion FWIW
I wonder if Centennial’s ever going to feel less like an overgrown office park. There’s so much wide open space and big roads and parking lots. This could help, if the design is really thoughtful.
It’s been years since I’ve been out to Centennial Campus but it felt like that way back when I was in school. Since I graduated they opened the Hunt library, added a bunch of dorms, and I think remember hearing there’s townhouses for sale too out there. Maybe as the school keeps expanding out there the vibe might change but who knows honestly.
I like taking a walking tour of the area every couple years to see how it’s doing. Probably about that time again. Maybe we can do another DTR Meetup walking event again. @dtraleigh
This is not what I imagined from reading that headline, and I haven’t heard of this new building before. Has it been posted on the forum before now? I can’t find any site plans, but this makes it look like the new Integrated Sciences Building is gonna be breathing down the neck of Williams hall and completely obscuring Dabney and Cox from view from the brickyard (maybe the intended outcome. Not the prettiest of buildings).
The Cultural Landscape Foundation (haven’t heard of them before, they’re based in DC) are worried about the loss of tree canopy (which one?) and the impact on post war architecture (lol) showcased in the brickyard and Burlington Labs, which isn’t even adjacent to this new building.
I went to state between 2017 and 2021 and I never noticed a lack of vibrancy. Harrelson Hall was one of, like, 10 classroom buildings in the immediate vicinity, not to mention the library and food court, so there were still plenty of people using the brickyard as a thru-way and hangout spot.
I guess I just don’t understand the angle that TBJ is coming from here. I hope the new building doesn’t turn out to be quite so imposing but I have no problem with it going there. Also, updating the brickyard to be more accessible feels like a win to me. Some of those slopes climbing out of the brickyard to the east are pretty steep.
