^^^ good story.

10/27/2009 10:08:30 PM

I don't think professor windmills ever gave his name, he was an older white male (that narrows it down right?)

10/28/2009 7:08:45 AM

Wondering if it was an Arch. Professor: http://ncsudesign.org/content/index.cfm/mode/1/fuseaction/page/filename/people_architecture.html

I can think of a few that I can imagine having said conversation...

10/28/2009 9:40:28 AM

i'm liking how neo-classical architecture is considered "timeless" to some people on here. no doubt they currently live or will end up living in cary.

Quote :

"Looks like someone mixed a dollop of Essence of Frank Lloyd Wright and a pinch or two of Guggenheim into the old magic AutoCAD and spewed forth this thing."

nice job comparing this to falling water and the guggenheim. two buildings with little to nothing in common are being used to critique these renderings?...simply brilliant. you can't just throw out the only two examples of architecture you know in an attempt to sound intelligent. i mean, after you posted the three images, a very basic alarm should have sounded in your head that the three buildings have practically nothing in common, other than a roof (which the guggenheim barely even has). look, at the very least, give snohetta architects the courtesy of comparison to say a steven holl, or rem koolhaas. just goes to show that design education stops immediately after leazar, brooks, and kamphoefner halls.

Quote :

"You would think that you'd what it to harmonize with the other buildings already constructed or planned."

i know you don't really mean any harm by this comment, but it still irks me when people want architecture to "mimic" its surroundings. it should respond and relate to its habitat, yes. but it doesn't need to replicate whats already there. as our understandings and technologies evolve, so should our built environment. you wouldn't expect a mathematician to continue using a slide ruler when he could also use more technological tools, would you?

i'm not in love with some of the facade treatments on the longitudinal elevations, but overall i'd be excited to have this on campus. it would be the closest thing to progressive architecture this school has seen in a while. hopefully it will add some interest to add more progressive architecture on campus.

10/28/2009 1:52:48 PM

interview with Jimmy Hunt about the library



[Edited on October 28, 2009 at 8:45 PM. Reason : +]

10/28/2009 8:42:26 PM

The Wolf Web is clearly not the place to come for informed architectural criticism.

Though the conversation about contextualism could actually lead somewhere interesting... I wonder what it is that is so non-contextual about the building to people? Metal cladding? Non flat roof? I know somebody mentioned brick, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to take a peek around Centennial Campus and see that it's not the only building that isn't wrapped in four inches of kiln-dried clay paint.

I don't like the suburban nature of the building. It's object architecture at it's finest (which, I'd say, is the only real similarity I see to Bilbao, with the exception of metal cladding.) I know, I know, Raleigh is a suburban city, but that doesn't mean we can't think ahead farther than ten minutes.

It also relates to the human scale and scale of the surrounding buildings much moreso than Gehry's building... But I guess 'a squiggly line = a squiggly line.'

It'd be nice to know how the building interfaces with transportation systems... I feel like that was a stated goal prior to meetings between community, library staff, and the designers, but I'm not really seeing how the building serves as any kind of transportation hub (with the possible exception of a nearby wolfline stop and maybe a bike rack or two.)

</rant>

[Edited on October 28, 2009 at 9:53 PM. Reason : .]

10/28/2009 9:52:10 PM

admittedly, i haven't followed the development of this project very closely.

but i wouldn't jump to the conclusion that it's object architecture just yet. at least not without analyzing the plan and sections, which are not available (at least not on the last page.) there could very well be a brilliant circulation scheme or some type of unique programming that warrants the buildings form. i can't say for sure, because i don't have enough information. but if i had to guess, i'd say it's the green space requirements (and i'm fairly certain centennial campus wants a lot of green space for its new buildings) that played a large role of the orientation and layout of the building.

what exactly screams "suburbanism" to you? is it the green space? if so, i'd have to disagree. the building does not need to take up the entire lot just to appease some requirement of forced urbanism, wouldn't you agree? if anything, a college campus is the one time where it's okay to break away from urbanism. if this building where on fayetville street, then yeah, it would be an irresponsible design. but put if you put it on a college campus, and the space is activated more often than not, i think its fine. if i were a student, i would rather enjoy an opportunity to eat lunch or just lay in the sun on my down time in front of the library (just like students do in front of dh hill). i don't want to go too much further, as i may just be misinterpreting your criticism.


one thing i am not happy with are the vertical slats on the east and west facades. they feel very forced and are so far spaced apart that they can't really be of much functional use. it seems as if it was an attempt to break up the monotony of an otherwise plain and monolithic cladding system, which i don't like. that's something i'd expect out of libeskind - wild oblique forms with random scratches to help break it up.

[Edited on October 28, 2009 at 10:56 PM. Reason : ]

10/28/2009 10:27:16 PM

Quote :

"what exactly screams "suburbanism" to you? is it the green space? if so, i'd have to disagree. the building does not need to take up the entire lot just to appease some requirement of forced urbanism, wouldn't you agree? if anything, a college campus is the one time where it's okay to break away from urbanism. if this building where on fayetville street, then yeah, it would be an irresponsible design. but put if you put it on a college campus, and the space is activated more often than not, i think its fine. if i were a student, i would rather enjoy an opportunity to eat lunch or just lay in the sun on my down time in front of the library (just like students do in front of dh hill). i don't want to go too much further, as i may just be misinterpreting your criticism."

I would say what seems suburban about it (to me) is largely the choice of location, and program. I absolutely agree on the green space, and can't stress enough how important that should be to Centennial Campus. The green spaces are precisely what makes Main Campus so great. Even when surrounded by a combination of brick neoclassicism and 70s era Brutalism, Main Campus is still a great place to be because of the green spaces.

I wish (as has been discussed in TBJ) (http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2009/08/31/story4.html) that housing was brought into the master plan for Centennial much earlier. I'll readily admit that the mixed-use models elsewhere in Raleigh, while some are commercially successful, aren't one hundred percent there... I think the housing component that is so critical to college campuses, has been tragically absent in State's campus plan (I suspect there are private commercial interests to blame, but can't really back that up with any kind of concrete evidence.)

Alas, I guess my gripe is moreso with the campus as a whole, not this building. These are issues that would have to have come up extremely early in the design process. Centennial still seems to be NC State's own little RTP... And I'm not sure that it's something that can be fixed with one building.

Quote :

"one thing i am not happy with are the vertical slats on the east and west facades. they feel very forced and are so far spaced apart that they can't really be of much functional use. it seems as if it was an attempt to break up the monotony of an otherwise plain and monolithic cladding system, which i don't like. that's something i'd expect out of libeskind - wild oblique forms with random scratches to help break it up."

Aesthetically, I can definitely feel where you're coming from on the cladding system and vertical slats. It seems like a relatively arbitrary way to deal with the facade, hopefully there is something we're not aware of driving it (economies of scale, or a structural module of some sort.)

10/29/2009 11:46:30 AM

Grading taking place in the vicinity of the Library construction site:
http://www.mae.ncsu.edu/EBIII/09-1013-550.jpg

That's EB I top center, the corner of EB III just poking down in the top right

11/4/2009 11:02:25 AM

cheap-o photoshop of the proposed buildings onto the photo I just posted^
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/9603/20091013550copy.jpg

11/4/2009 11:45:23 AM

11/18/2009 12:28:33 PM

Holy crap that's a lot of land cleared. I mean I knew it was a lot because it's not just the library being built, but damn. Also appears to be 4 retention ponds scattered around there.

[Edited on November 18, 2009 at 1:06 PM. Reason : -]

11/18/2009 1:04:28 PM

Quote :

"There has been a lot of talk, among staff, that they are thinking of housing some depts of CHASS over there at the new Hunt Library."

i hope not. IIRC NCSUs masterplan is supposed to be a campus of neighborhoods/communities. and while i can understand holding a couple of english sections (or whatever) over there, the meat of CHASS belongs on left campus.

regarding Hunt's design, as long as they throw a few bricks on it i'd be satisfied. say what you want to about being new and different, poe, harrelson, and ricks are the ugliest three major buildings on main campus for a reason.

11/19/2009 6:10:44 PM

I still would love them to build the monorail.

11/19/2009 6:17:24 PM

Quote :

"It does look ugly. What must be noted is the lack of any mother fucking bricks."

Brick can be done right. Just take a trip down here to UNCW.

Perhaps though NCSU should ensure the rest of campus is not falling apart before building NCSU v2.

Quote :

"I absolutely agree on the green space, and can't stress enough how important that should be to Centennial Campus. The green spaces are precisely what makes Main Campus so grea"

Unless you are a CHASS student what fucking green space are you talking about.

Quote :

"that housing was brought into the master plan for Centennial much "

Unless you are a professor or grad student who would want to live on centinnial anyway. I laugh at any student that signs up
for the "engineering dorm" that i heard was being built. While nice that i could throw on my pants and be in class at EB2 in 15 after
waking up (I always had a DC parking pasS); one of the worst aspects of being there was being removed from the "college" feel and
environment. Perhaps if you asocial or complete dork the engineering dorm would be LAN party central and loads of fun. Otherwise
being over there would make you very socially isolated and cause any misguided freshman to miss out on a lot that living on campus has to offer.

Quote :

"That's EB I top center, the corner of EB III just poking down in the top right"

Next time i'm in town I want to drop in EBIII. ARe classes there yet?? I remember there being a skeleton there when i left.

11/19/2009 6:26:57 PM

it'll be nice to finally have walking continuity between the chunks of centennial that have been developed

11/19/2009 6:33:17 PM

You could walk before, you just had to walk through the woods. I liked that about centennial...when class was over I could get the hell away from my foul-smelling peers and go eat lunch in the woods.

11/19/2009 8:49:52 PM

Quote :

"Unless you are a professor or grad student who would want to live on centinnial anyway. I laugh at any student that signs up for the "engineering dorm" that i heard was being built. While nice that i could throw on my pants and be in class at EB2 in 15 after waking up (I always had a DC parking pasS); one of the worst aspects of being there was being removed from the "college" feel and environment. Perhaps if you asocial or complete dork the engineering dorm would be LAN party central and loads of fun. Otherwise being over there would make you very socially isolated and cause any misguided freshman to miss out on a lot that living on campus has to offer."

It'd kind of be like going to college at Georgia Tech. Ewwwww.

Quote :

"Next time i'm in town I want to drop in EBIII. ARe classes there yet?? I remember there being a skeleton there when i left."

I don't think they are holding classes until there before next fall. If I had to guess, right now it's still undergoing a lot of internal construction. It should be getting close to walkable, though. (No idea if you'd be allowed to stick your head in.)

11/20/2009 12:47:31 PM

^ a lot of us think they will start moving people in this spring, but its not suppose to officially open till next fall for classes.

11/20/2009 9:30:05 PM

mockup of the exterior windows

1/5/2010 10:28:48 AM

is it a bomb shelter? wtf are those

1/5/2010 10:32:31 AM

^^ Ive been wondering that was. OK.

To me those aeral shots looking at them again... Seems too small an area for the library with the "Oval" inside all the engr spaces. I know they are putting in a parking deck, but I think thats probably going in the main area thats cleared, next to the one partners lot.

1/5/2010 11:40:57 AM

Quote :

"To me those aeral shots looking at them again... Seems too small an area for the library with the "Oval" inside all the engr spaces. I know they are putting in a parking deck, but I think thats probably going in the main area thats cleared, next to the one partners lot."

It looks like a tight squeeze, but I think everything fits in there.

Judging off of this image (which might be outdated ... beats me):


Looks like EB V is a bit bigger than EB I by about 30% or more. The Library looks to be about the same size as EB V. From the above image, I piddled around and made this very crude overlay:





My main points of reference when I made it were:
The centerline coming from EB II down the middle of the oval
The straight line/sidewalk coming from Partners I and going straight between EB V and the Library
The straight line/sidewalk coming from the left side of Partners I beside the proposed parking deck and going through the middle of EB V. (I obviously didn't correctly line up the Housing building beside EB III.)

1/5/2010 10:40:59 PM

new video

[Edited on August 12, 2010 at 11:13 AM. Reason : +]

8/12/2010 11:12:25 AM

Quote :

""

The housing is further down at the corner of Main Campus Drive and Achievement Drive.

8/12/2010 12:08:46 PM

Thing does look like it was designed by Mike Brady.

8/13/2010 12:22:34 AM

The new modern seating just arrived:

8/13/2010 3:46:58 AM

hooksaw is such a hack

8/13/2010 4:33:35 AM

lot of concrete and rebar visible on the webcams: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/huntlibrary/camera.html
Not quite enough to get a feel for the shape of the building yet, but the concrete is getting poured pretty quickly.

8/13/2010 9:39:00 AM

Quote :

"lot of concrete and rebar visible on the webcams"

Most of that is for the new parking deck. They haven't really done much of anything in regard to the library yet.

8/13/2010 12:29:03 PM

Went to Centennial for the first time in 5 years. I'm amazed how much is over there now

8/13/2010 2:04:19 PM

Why, in the video, when they start talking about RTP do they immediately show the "shimmer wall" of the new convention center downtown?

8/13/2010 9:35:16 PM

Both the library and the parking deck have a lot of concrete and rebar. Unless there's a deck under the library, which I don't think is the case.
The library has two towers built up a good height and a couple of walls (and a staircase with a wall down the middle of it).

[Edited on August 13, 2010 at 9:56 PM. Reason : ]

8/13/2010 9:52:21 PM

my sister-in-law is from Bilbao, everyone hates that building so I can't see why we'd want to replicate that. The old buildings on engineering row are timeless, the last thing NCSU needs is another space ship Harrelson... yeah you recognize it but is still sucks. leave the trendy building to planet hollywood and tgifridays.

8/14/2010 11:35:21 AM

there taint no way i'm getting involved in the "timeless" discussion again until the year 2310

[Edited on August 14, 2010 at 3:25 PM. Reason : i can always go back and re-read page one]

8/14/2010 3:24:40 PM

>>>>





This rendering reminds me of a sub compact modular home design I saw somewhere. Exact same design really. I can't remember the name, but maybe someone else has seen it. I hope they really do plant corn our in front... That will make it more NC State'ish. The inside look nice even though I really don't like the exterior (and I'm a fan of modern architecture).

Not sure the automatic retrieval system is necessary. That's typically a big investment (we have several at my work) and with everything going more and more electronic, is it really worth it for something that will be used less and less as things become digital.

8/14/2010 4:25:12 PM

Everytime I look at this thread, I think of the Bill Clinton library. I am not a fan of either design.







[Edited on August 16, 2010 at 8:27 AM. Reason : df]

8/16/2010 8:26:39 AM

It looks like a trailer

8/16/2010 8:43:40 AM

Quote :

"Not sure the automatic retrieval system is necessary. That's typically a big investment (we have several at my work) and with everything going more and more electronic, is it really worth it for something that will be used less and less as things become digital."

As more and more papers are going electronic, I think the automatic retrieval system makes more sense. Shove all the books back into a corner. Make them take up as little space as possible. Leave more room out front for seating and computers and meeting rooms.
My biggest complaint about the robot system is how well it's going to hold up going into the future. Ten, fifteen years from now, will the system be slow and outdated? How easy will it be to upgrade the system as better technology comes out?

8/16/2010 9:05:48 AM

I think I'm just gonna start posting other campus construction images in here, if people don't mind.

Here's the new parking deck going in between Butler and the Baseball field.

I'm trying to figure out what the deal is with the giant elongated glass stairwell coming off of it. I mean it looks cool, but I'm trying to figure out if there's a functionality to it.

Is there an escalator in there? Is there a parking office of some sort? New stairwell ADA compliance?




[Edited on August 16, 2010 at 12:45 PM. Reason : ?]

8/16/2010 12:43:33 PM

Most likely fenestration? The window design will allow for at least some solar heating.

As for the size, this could also allow in more sunlight, but what about increased capacity? Is some type of nearby event expected from time to time that may have large numbers of people moving through the stairway at once?

[Edited on August 16, 2010 at 1:12 PM. Reason : Just some quick thoughts, marko.]

8/16/2010 1:12:25 PM

MAE officially moved into EBIII a couple of days ago. Centennial will actually get a couple of girls on campus now.

8/17/2010 8:57:53 AM

hey now, textiles has been there for years

8/17/2010 9:20:32 AM

Someone tell jim goodnight to pay for the library.

8/17/2010 9:31:10 AM

^^^Wtf are you talking about, MAE is going to do nothing but dilute the girl population even more. CHE is approaching 50/50, and what is MAE, 99/1?

BME is what will bring more females to Centennial, which ironically is third floor of EBIII

8/17/2010 12:38:16 PM

Guess I was mostly making a distinction between MAE and ECE (EBII). MAE has at least 20 girls in the department.

8/17/2010 1:42:07 PM

My company's bidding on this project. Not sure when construction is scheduled to start, but bids are due september 16th (probably awarded shortly thereafter).

8/19/2010 4:44:07 PM

Now why isn't there an automatic retrieval system on the parking deck? That'd be the new hotness

8/27/2010 9:49:18 PM

Construction is going pretty well...according to these webcams

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/huntlibrary/camera.html

Camera 1: http://152.14.22.251/view/viewer_index.shtml

hahaha holy shit you can control the webcams

Camera 2: http://152.14.48.66/view/viewer_index.shtml

Quote :

"Enjoy the Experience-Each viewer gets to control the camera for 60 seconds. If you aren’t first in line, you can see at the bottom of the web page what number you are in the queue and how long your wait will be. "

[Edited on March 29, 2011 at 3:18 PM. Reason : adsf]

[Edited on March 29, 2011 at 3:19 PM. Reason : corrected link]

3/29/2011 3:18:13 PM

Any idea on the estimated completion date?

3/29/2011 3:48:53 PM