Duke's Revised Expansion Plans Take Advantage of Art Museum, Gardens

Duke University plans to expand its campus alongside two of its most prominent landmarks -- the Nasher Museum of Art and the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. The new plan follows an extensive review of how the university can best meet student needs and serve the campus community in future decades.

On Saturday, the Duke University Board of Trustees approved a master plan design, which includes focusing initial development along Campus Drive, between Duke's East and West campuses. The design concept for development over the next 50 to 75 years was presented by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects (PCPA) to the trustees at their weekend meeting.

The Duke community and the general public will get a chance to hear from the PCPA team and to learn about the expansion's general design at a meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 12, in the museum's Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family Lecture Hall.

Officials say they will seek input from students, faculty, employees and other Duke and neighborhood community members to inform PCPA's work as it starts tackling specific details of the plan.

After an extensive analysis of existing conditions such as the terrain, transit routes and other issues, the PCPA team concluded that expansion along Campus Drive provides many practical, environmental and aesthetic advantages over the university's previous plan to build closer to Erwin Road.

In addition to producing a more integrated feeling to Duke's campus as a whole, officials said the new approach also will comply with all of the zoning commitments the university previously agreed to with the City of Durham and local community leaders, including improvements to Anderson Street to give it more of a campus feel.

Cesar Pelli, who was selected by the American Institute of Architects as one of the 10 most influential living American architects, led the analysis and design process, assisted by other members of the firm, which has received more than 100 awards for design excellence.

"Duke asked the Pelli Clarke Pelli team to take a fresh approach, and it has come back with an unexpected and wonderfully inventive approach. Their plan extends organically from West Campus and embraces the gardens and the Nasher as the center of a new focal point for our campus," Duke President Richard H. Brodhead said. "What they've designed is exciting for its creativity and for how well it pulls together Duke's East and West campuses, both physically and programmatically."

The new plan contains many of the same features of the earlier plan. The development will include residences for as many as 1,400 undergraduate students, graduate students and visiting faculty. The residential spaces will "encourage inter-generational interaction," and are expected to consist mainly of apartments along with some suites and dorm facilities, Brodhead said.

Academically, the plan identifies space for the arts, humanities, international programs and other purposes. These include the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies; international services; language, literature and culture departments; visual and performing arts programs and theater spaces; a library resource center that focuses on the visual arts; classrooms and study rooms; and one or more centers for alumni, career planning and visitors.

"This new design will bring together programs that have been distributed across campus to provide opportunities for new synergies and interdisciplinary learning," said Provost Peter Lange, the university's chief academic officer. "The PCPA team helped us to see how this historic undertaking can better transform the campus as a whole -- academically, socially, culturally and in other ways."

The plan also calls for dining, social and recreational amenities placed strategically along campus travel routes used by students.

The new plan takes advantage of existing bus routes and encourages more walking and biking by students and others. "We want Duke to be a model of sustainability, and one way to do that is to make it easier for our students and others to walk or bike to where they are going," said Tallman Trask, Duke's executive vice president. Widening the bike lanes on Campus Drive and adding new bike lanes elsewhere on campus can help reduce people's reliance on motor vehicles, he said.

All of the buildings will be designed and constructed to be low-energy and resource-efficient to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building standards, Trask said. "A minimum of LEED Silver certification is the target for all construction, with some buildings to be identified for a higher goal," he said. "We are planning this expansion with a high degree of environmental sensitivity," Trask added. "Duke is committed to building on previously disturbed land. The new plan will give careful attention to protecting and expanding natural areas -- indeed, it capitalizes on them -- and to implementing innovative stormwater management practices."

The plan will not require immediate demolition of existing Central Campus apartments that serve about 1,000 students. The apartments will be phased out as construction proceeds. "Using the apartments, this will provide students with a place to live as we build new housing and renovate residence halls on West Campus. However, the university is committed to demolishing the apartments as soon as practicable," Trask said.

University officials foresee future medical and research-related offices and facilities being built in the direction of Central Campus, closer to and along Erwin Road near Duke University Hospital.

The plan's focus on the arts will help Duke foster interaction with the community, said Phail Wynn, vice president for Durham and regional affairs.

"We are excited about the plan's overall vision because we believe its emphasis on the arts will bring more members of the Durham community to campus," Wynn said. "It will be a great strengthening of the cultural amenities available to the people of Durham."

Once school officials agree on which buildings will be constructed in Phase I, the design stage, which requires trustee approval, will take at least six months. Infrastructure work could begin in early 2009, with buildings beginning to open in early 2011.

PCPA and their design team, who have kept Duke administrators and the Board of Trustees' Buildings and Grounds Committee apprised of their ideas throughout the planning process, will continue to assist Duke with planning, refining the program elements and completing design, landscape, transportation and sustainability guidelines. They also will assist with the selection of architects to design specific buildings, and with beginning the needed infrastructure work.

"In July 2007, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects was selected to develop an overall vision for the campus and its architecture that embodies an integrated academic community," said Robert Steel, the chairman of Duke's trustees. "We feel the Pelli firm's plan does a masterful job of providing a conceptual vision for a 21st century campus that addresses the current and future needs of a changing institution. As someone who grew up in Durham, I could not be more proud of the contribution we will be making to both Duke and our community."