Trustees Approve New Look for Baldwin Auditorium

The Duke University Board
of Trustees on Saturday approved a striking makeover for one of the
university's landmark buildings, the Baldwin Auditorium performance space on
East Campus.

Meeting for the first time
this academic year, the trustees also gave the go-ahead for a renovation of the
West Campus Steam Plant and for the renaming of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and
Special Collections Library in honor of trustee David M. Rubenstein.

The renovations to Baldwin
were first announced in May, when The Duke Endowment of Charlotte, N.C., made
an $80 million gift to renovate Baldwin and Page auditoriums and to transform
the West Union into a "Main Street" for students, faculty and visitors to
campus.

The Baldwin renovation
approved Saturday will cost an estimated $15 million and is scheduled to be
completed in 2013. The building's interior will be upgraded with improved
acoustics, new seats and other patron amenities, along with much-needed
improvements to the infrastructure.

With its distinctive white
dome and Georgian design, Baldwin Auditorium is the primary rehearsal and
performance venue for numerous student ensembles, including the Duke Symphony
Orchestra, the Duke Jazz Ensemble, the Duke Chorale and the Duke Wind Symphony.
It is named for historian Alice Baldwin, the first dean of Duke's former
Women's College.

In addition, the board
reviewed preliminary plans for an events pavilion that would initially serve as
a dining facility when the West Union building undergoes renovations in the
near future. Initial plans locate it adjacent to the plaza and the Bryan Center
near West Union, the home to Duke eateries, where it would serve as a temporary
dining facility when West Union renovations begin. The West Union
transformation is part of the historic renovation project made possible by The
Duke Endowment gift.

The West Campus Steam
Plant, which burned the last of its coal in April, will undergo a series of
environmentally friendly changes that will allow it to use natural gas instead
of coal to supply power to West Campus and Duke Hospital. Workers will remove
three existing coal-fired boilers and replace them with new boilers that burn
natural gas or, as a backup fuel, oil. The project also includes a major
refurbishment of the structure.

In addition to converting the plant to a more sustainable operation, the $35
million project will follow Duke's building
guidelines of acquiring Leadership in Energy
& Environmental Design (LEED) certification. Similar renovations to the
East Campus Steam Plant earned it a
gold LEED rating this year.

Last month, Rubenstein announced he was giving Duke Libraries its largest
donation, $13.6 million, toward the renovation of the special collection
library, which includes more than 350,000 printed volumes and more than 20
million items in manuscript and archival collections. All told, its holdings
document more than 20 centuries of human history and culture.

The special collections library, which is open to the public, is also home to
the University Archives and several research centers, including the Sallie
Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture; the John Hope Franklin Research
Center for African and African American History and Culture; the John W.
Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History; the Archive of
Documentary Arts; and the Human Rights Archive.

In other business, the
trustees reaffirmed the university's commitment to its need-blind admission
policy. Under this policy, all qualified U.S. citizens and legal permanent
residents are accepted regardless of their ability to pay for college, and Duke
guarantees it will meet 100 percent of demonstrated financial need.

The board also received
updates on Duke Kunshan University, whose campus is now under construction in
China; the future direction of Duke's Office of Global Strategies and Programs;
and the Sanford School of Public Policy.