With the flip of the calendar from 2014 to ’15 comes an array of newly completed and newly started construction projects that will give NC State’s campus — and points nearby — quite a different look.
Here’s a preview of what to expect during the next 12 months as you bounce back and forth from Hillsborough Street to Western Boulevard to Centennial Campus.
And if you were thinking this would be the year Harrelson Hall would be tipped over on its side and rolled off the Brickyard, don’t fret: That’s not likely to happen until the summer of 2016 or perhaps even 2017, depending on the completion of several other projects.
Below are a few bright and shiny things to look for in 2015:
- The completion of Talley Student Union is slated for late spring. The first two phases of the $120 million project, which opened over the past 15 months, included a new food court, new ballrooms, new student government chambers, a full-service catering kitchen, and indoor and outdoor common areas. The final phase will be the meat of the long-running project, opening the doors on a new student bookstore, new office space and gathering places for nine student-focused departments and some 600 student organizations.
- A $35 million renovation of historic Reynolds Coliseum, the multipurpose venue that served as the original home for NC State men’s basketball for 50 years until 1999, will begin in the spring. The coliseum’s current tenants include women’s basketball, wrestling, gymnastics and volleyball. All competition and events will be relocated for the duration of construction. When completed in 2016, the reconfigured Reynolds will include permanent seating for 5,500 and a home for the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame and Walk of Champions. Also in Wolfpack athletics, a $14 million indoor practice facility will open adjacent to Carter-Finley Stadium, to be used by football, men’s and women’s track and field, men’s and women’s soccer, and baseball for off-season and inclement weather training.
- On Centennial Campus, groundbreaking for a new hotel and conference center is slated for April 22. The hotel, adjacent to the NC State Alumni Center and overlooking Lake Raleigh, will be privately operated by the Marriott Autograph Collection and will have 155 rooms and 7,500 square feet of meeting space. Opening is targeted for 2016.
- The revitalization of Hillsborough Street will continue with the completion of five major projects that include housing and retail space. The Stanhope, a $78 million student housing project with 300 fully furnished apartments for up to 822 students, along with a parking deck and retail space, will open on the west end of Hillsborough this summer. The Aloft, a 135-room boutique hotel across from the Belltower, is also expected to open in midsummer, with 55 parking spaces and two retail shops on the ground floor. Construction has begun on an unnamed seven-story apartment building on the site of the former Two Guys Pizza restaurant and The Keg bar, across from the D.H. Hill Library. It will offer 24 apartments with housing for 96 occupants, plus ground-level retail space. And a pair of four-story apartments, one at the intersection of Dan Allen Drive and the other next to the iconic IHOP beyond the eastern edge of campus, will offer 30 one-bedroom apartments each and are expected to be completed this year.
- The bid process for the renovation of the former chancellor’s residence on Hillsborough Street for the Gregg Museum of Art and Design is expected to begin in the spring, with the hope of beginning the $9.1 million project to turn the house into the museum’s new home this year.
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