NC State University has officially broken ground on Fitts-Woolard Hall, a new $150 million engineering building on Centennial Campus. The 250,000-sf facility was designed by Clark Nexsen and will feature a transparent design that puts “engineering on display.”
The building’s main entry is flanked by a structural testing lab, senior student project space, and a large scale driving simulator that are all visible on the exterior and interior of the building.
Courtesy Clark Nexsen.
Collaboration and interaction will be supported throughout the four-story building in high degrees of transparency. Stairs at the end of the building will act as connecting threads between floors and reveal the building’s structural and mechanical systems as an additional instructional tool. An outdoor terrace, interspersed seating, and an open, collaborative space on the second floor known as “the hearth” will promote socialization and interaction between students.
See Also: South Dakota State University to receive new apartment and townhouse neighborhood
The third and fourth floors, which will be contained in a floating volume, will house faculty offices, graduate student space, and additional classrooms and research labs. Overall, Fitts-Woolard Hall will contain over 100 classrooms and laboratories and house the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering and the Fitts Department of Industrial and System Engineering.
Skanska is the project’s general contractor.
Related Stories
University Buildings | May 30, 2015
Texas senate approves $3 billion in bonds for university construction
For the first time in nearly a decade, Texas universities could soon have some state money for construction.
University Buildings | May 19, 2015
Special Report: How your firm can help struggling colleges and universities meet their building project goals
Building Teams that want to succeed in the higher education market have to help their clients find new funding sources, control costs, and provide the maximum value for every dollar.
University Buildings | May 19, 2015
Renovate or build new: How to resolve the eternal question
With capital budgets strained, renovation may be an increasingly attractive money-saving option for many college and universities.
University Buildings | May 19, 2015
KU Jayhawks take a gander at a P3 development
The P3 concept is getting a tryout at the University of Kansas, where state funding for construction has fallen from 20% of project costs to about 11% over the last 10 years.
University Buildings | May 5, 2015
Where the university students are (or will be)
SmithGroupJJR's Alexa Bush discusses changing demographics and the search for out-of-state students at public universities.
BIM and Information Technology | Apr 9, 2015
How one team solved a tricky daylighting problem with BIM/VDC tools, iterative design
SRG Partnership's Scott Mooney describes how Grasshopper, Diva, Rhino, and 3D printing were utilized to optimize a daylighting scheme at Oregon State University's new academic building.
Sponsored | University Buildings | Apr 8, 2015
Student Housing: The fight against mold starts in the bathroom
University Buildings | Apr 8, 2015
The competitive advantage of urban higher-ed institutions
In the coming years, urban colleges and universities will outperform their non-urban peers, bolstered by the 77 million Millennials who prefer to live in dense, diverse, and socially rich environments, writes SmithGroupJJR's Michael Johnson.
University Buildings | Mar 18, 2015
Academic incubators: Garage innovation meets higher education
Gensler's Jill Goebel and Christine Durman discuss the role of design in academic incubators, and why many universities are building them to foster student growth.
Retail Centers | Mar 10, 2015
Retrofit projects give dying malls new purpose
Approximately one-third of the country’s 1,200 enclosed malls are dead or dying. The good news is that a sizable portion of that building stock is being repurposed.
