RALEIGH -- N.C. State University leaders got their first detailed look Thursday at plans for a new $3 million lakefront chancellor's house, and the project appears to be headed for easy approval today after winning solid reviews.
"The university will be proud of this for many, many years," said Gayle Lanier, chairwoman of the NCSU board of trustees' Buildings and Property Committee, which enthusiastically voted to recommend the full board approve the house today.
The house would be built with private donations of cash, materials and services, which NCSU has already received, university officials said. It would sit on the south shore of Lake Raleigh on NCSU's Centennial Campus.
The 8,500-square-foot design replaces an earlier version that had soared to more than 12,000 square feet and more than $5 million. The project had stalled after university officials grew concerned about the size and cost.
But interim Chancellor James Woodward revived the project shortly after his arrival on campus last summer, saying that it was crucial for the kind of fundraising that a modern university needs. Also, he said, the chancellor's home is often a key first impression for important visitors.
The current chancellor's home off Hillsborough Street near the Bell Tower is more than 80 years old, has little parking space and is cramped for even modest gatherings.
University facilities staff, an ad hoc committee appointed by the trustees, College of Design Dean Marvin Malecha and others retooled the old design. Several of them visited the chancellor's home at UNC Charlotte to get ideas.
The new NCSU house, Woodward said, is a refinement of that house, which he was involved with as chancellor there.
Several universities across the state have built new chancellors' homes in recent years, part of a trend of making them quasi-public buildings geared as much toward fundraising events and other social affairs as housing. The chancellor's family living quarters will be on the 3,000-square-foot second floor.
Malecha, president of the American Institute of Architects last year, gave the committee a presentation on the house, for which he acted as chief designer.
Modern touches
The design is meant to be modern, to fit on the technology-oriented campus, but with traditional form and materials, such as brick like that found in NCSU's oldest buildings. Malecha said the design aims for a proper level of dignity for such a house, but also stays humble and approachable, befitting NCSU's position as a land-grant university.
The home, approached on a long, tree-lined drive, will incorporate "green" design elements, such as a geothermal heating and cooling system, solar panels and perhaps a small windmill. It also will be a "mini-stimulus plan," Malecha said, because the university plans to use as many materials from North Carolina as possible.
Trustee John Sall, co-founder of SAS Institute, asked about the geothermal heating and cooling system and about the dramatic approach to the house. Then he beamed and proclaimed the design a winner.
The committee endorsed it unanimously.
Kevin MacNaughton, associate vice chancellor for facilities, said that if the full board approves it today, the university will take the plans to the city next week for approval. Construction could begin as soon as two weeks later.
