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By Dan Nonte, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-4314
Posted 11-19-09
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Board of Trustees on Thursday selected the design team of Woolpert and Hanbury, Evans, Wright and Vlattas to plan the renovation of the Quad residence halls.
Members of the design team have won 17 national and international housing design awards in the last eight years and recently completed a renovation of the historic Quad area at Clemson. The UNCG project, expected to cost $52.5 million, will include a complete interior and exterior renovation of the seven 1920s residence halls – Shaw, Hinshaw, Gray, Bailey, Cotten, Jamison and Coit – and will start in May 2011.
The university had considered replacing the Classical Revival buildings, but opted for renovation following the completion of UNCG’s first-ever Strategic Plan for Housing and after receiving input from the university community, alumni and preservationists.
The renovation will include the addition of air conditioning, fire sprinklers and accommodations for those with disabilities. The halls will be converted from traditional double rooms to suite-style rooms with adjoining baths. Additional spaces for learning communities will be created as part of the project.
A team of university facilities design and construction staff, housing staff, students, graduate students in interior architecture and nationally renowned housing and design professionals will begin the design process this winter.
A new residence hall on Spring Garden Street near Tower Village, slated to open in August 2011, will help to address the loss of bed space during the Quad renovation. The UNCG-affiliated Capital Facilities Foundation is overseeing the design and construction of the new building.
The trustees received a report that the foundation has chosen Pearce Brinkley Cease and Lee and Ayers/Saint/Gross to design the new hall. The foundation has picked a joint venture of Samet/Barton Malow/SRS as construction manager at risk for the $30 million, 400-bed residence hall. Site work will begin this spring.
The trustees also chose Walter Robbs Callahan & Pierce to do preliminary planning for a new student recreation center. No location has been picked for the new facility, which would augment rather than replace the recreation center at Walker Avenue and Aycock Street.
In other related business, the trustees picked the Harrington Group Inc. to plan the addition of fire sprinklers and a new fire alarm system in Ragsdale-Mendenhall Residence Hall, work projected to cost $1.6 million.
The UNC system has mandated that all residence halls have fire sprinklers by 2012. This is the final stand-alone fire sprinkler project to meet this requirement.