INC NEWS - 1st phase of Central Campus to cost about $240M (Duke Chronicle)

[John Schelp]

1st phase of Central to cost about $240M: Overhaul of
residential campus will include 14 new buildings
(by David Graham, Duke Chronicle, 21 March 2006)

When the drab buildings of Central Campus fall to the
wrecking ball later this year, University
administrators hope to see a shining "academic
village" rise in their place.

University officials have outlined plans for Phase I
of the major renovation project, and they will present
them in a meeting with the Durham community Tuesday
night.

In Phase I, the University will construct 14 buildings
and spend approximately $240 million.

The anticipated improvements include thousands of
square feet of performance space, a new centralized
arts community and a combined Alumni Affairs and
Career Center facility.

"We didn't want to create a bedroom suburb, and a lot
of thinking from the academic side has been toward
that," Provost Peter Lange said. "It creates a
community-a village."

Of the 800,000 total square feet projected for
construction, approximately 150,000 will be designated
for academics. Space will be created for 1,200 beds in
apartment-style living, eateries, a bookstore, fitness
facilities, a basketball practice facility and a
replacement for Uncle Harry's Store, which will be
torn down in the renovation process.

Elkus Manfredi, a Boston-based architectural firm, was
chosen to draft plans for the Central Campus project
in October 2005, but the University does not yet have
definitive architectural renderings for the new space.
Diagrams showing "footprints"-tentative
representations of buildings' positions and sizes-have
been drawn and will be shown at Tuesday's meeting.

Executive Vice President Tallman Trask said the
$240-million figure is based on a cost estimate of
$300 per square foot and includes all projected costs,
including infrastructure. The means of funding are not
yet solidified.

"There are a number of possible sources, including our
money, some private funds and some partnership money,"
Trask said. "We'll undoubtedly do it as a tax-exempt
project. It will be largely debt-financed."

Lange said the University hopes to centralize arts
teaching in new spaces along Anderson Street, using
the new Nasher Museum of Art as an anchor. Classroom
spaces will be shared by several departments with
overlapping missions.

Internal and cross-campus dispersion of similar
departments and new opportunities for interaction
between them are major incentives for the plan, Lange
noted.

The Departments of Art, Art History and Visual
Studies, Slavic and Eurasian Studies, German, Romance
Studies and Asian and African Languages and Literature
are slated to move to Central as part of Phase I. The
theater studies and dance departments will also be
allotted some space.

The John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary
and International Studies, the Franklin Humanities
Institute, the Office of Study Abroad and the Program
in Film/Video/Digital will also be moving to new
spaces on Central.

John Clum, professor and chair of the Department of
Theater Studies, said he is looking forward to the
possibility of collaborative projects with other
departments for theatrical productions.

His wish list includes a theater with 200 to 300 seats
and a single building that would include acting
classrooms, dance studios, a set shop, offices and
performance spaces. But Clum said he is skeptical
about the projected time frame for Phase I.

"Everything about Central is pie-in-the-sky, and yet
they say something is going to happen in 2008," he
said. "A lot of it depends on how much money they can
find. You can't just build a campus for $39.95."

Sheila Curran, executive director of the Career
Center, presented her plan for a combined alumni and
career space to Duke Student Government March 8.

"It's a wonderful addition for both [the Career Center
and Alumni Affairs]," Curran said. "When I first heard
we were going to be on Central, I was very worried.
Since then, the plans have really changed so it's
going to be a vibrant community."

Trask anticipates that Phase I will comprise about 20
percent of the final renovation. Although Phase II is
slated to involve faculty housing, he said it is not
clear how many phases will be involved, what the final
cost will be or when it will be completed.

"You try to think about it as people thought about
East and West [Campuses]," Trask said. "Somebody was
obviously very thoughtful about East and West, and I
hope down the road people will think the same thing
about this."

He added that he hopes within a century, the project
will create a single unified campus where the
distinctions between East, West and Central cease to
exist.

Lange said the project will not stop at the boundaries
of Central Campus.

"We have spaces we need to do work on, on both East
and West-Baldwin, Page, the West Union," he said.
"We're going to have to do a more sustained reworking
than just renovations to allow current use."

John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham
Neighborhood Association, said some of the animosity
regarding Central Campus that generated between the
University and the Durham community over the last few
years dissipated with Duke's decision to request
University-College zoning for Central.

The designation-which East and West Campuses already
have-limits any retail to businesses that are integral
to the academic mission of the University. It was seen
by OWDNA as an essential protection for local
businesses from potential tax-exempt on-campus
competition.

"Peter Lange has accomplished more [in terms of
community relations] in two months than the public
relations office was able to do in two years," Schelp
said. "But it's still the same set-up, where Duke
talks for 45 minutes about what they're going to do
and when we ask questions the answers are always,
'We'll get back to you.'"

Nevertheless, Duke officials are optimistic that
positive changes will be felt by many generations of
future students once the new Central is built. "It's
fabulous," Lange said. "It's an incredible chance."