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PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES
March 4, 2010
Winslow Hall Conference Room
Chairman Dick Bernhard called the meeting to order at 3:38 p.m. The following members attended the meeting: Andrew Barnes, Aram Attarian, Dick Bernhard, Karen Ciccone, Ahmed El Saghir, Garden Freeman, Ann Hartell, Trevor Little, Charley Pennell, Rick Seagroves, and Ed Sekmistrz.
EX-OFFICO: Jack Colby, Tom Kendig
GUESTS: Alison Carpenter, Transportation; Brian O’Sullivan, Transportation
WELCOME: Dick Bernhard welcomed the committee members and guests and asked them all to introduce themselves.
OLD BUSINESS:
Minutes for the February 4, 2010 meeting could not be approved since a quorum was not present today
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
CAMPUS PLANNING AND DESIGN AND RESOURCE AND CONSERVATION SUBCOMMITTEE:
Dick Bernhard asked Garden Freeman to provide the subcommittee report, Garden presented the Centennial Campus Student Housing project that is in the planning stages. With the ongoing move of the College of Engineering to Centennial Campus, there is great pressure to provide student housing and dining facilities as well as other student amenities to serve this student population. The College of Engineering is about one fourth of NC State’s 33,800 student population. Six of the ten departments will be located on Centennial Campus by 2010. In addition to serving Engineering students, the new Centennial Campus Student Housing facilities will also serve students in the College of Textiles, located on Main Campus Drive.
The project will provide about 1,150 undergraduate beds in apartment style housing in approximately 333,000 assigned square feet (ASF). This project will complete the eastern edge of the oval and define the middle section of the Oval. Pedestrian connections from the Oval through the site and east to the future Main Campus Drive extension are included in the project. A 14,000 ASF dining facility, the Oval Marketplace, will be located in the building that faces the Oval and will include an exterior plaza with outdoor seating. Structured parking with one space for every two beds will be located adjacent to the housing.
The Centennial Campus Student Housing will primarily serve upper class students with freshmen remaining in traditional student housing on Central Campus.
The Housing site is an important complement to the Oval. The Oval is a Campus Green, the largest type of shared open space to be defined by buildings. The addition of residential and food service facilities will complement the existing lecture halls and laboratories in the Engineering buildings, and the library and gallery space at the Hunt Library to create a mixed-use neighborhood.
The middle terrace of the Oval should be developed as a space suitable for programmed activities and community gathering. The residential buildings will create smaller courtyards that complement the larger open space in the Oval.
Neighborhood paths connect the buildings with the All Campus Path, parking facilities, transit stops, and service areas. The site design will incorporate paths that negotiate the grade changes using universal design. Architectural features of the buildings may afford opportunities to create portals, which act as thresholds between campus neighborhoods and aid in wayfinding.
Storm Water Best Management Practices will be integrated into the landscape and architecture as amenities.
The Centennial Housing project will be a model of environmental, social and economic sustainability and have a positive impact on the campus and surrounding community.
This project will actively advance NC State's larger sustainability commitments by incorporating sustainable building, site design and construction throughout the life of the project and will engage residents in reducing the environmental impact of the building and site.
Currently, four daytime and one night-time Wolfline transit routes serve Centennial Campus. The 2009-2014 Wolfline Transit Development Plan calls for service expansions to, from and within Centennial Campus in order to better accommodate current and future populations.
Trevor Little asked whether the project was imminent. Jack Colby said that this study was done to see what could be done to get cost in line. They need to get the cost to $70,000 to $75,000/bed. Consideration is being given to third party financing. Dick Bernhard also asked whether the project was imminent. Colby said the goal is 2013.
Trevor Little asked how many campus projects are LEED certified. Colby noted the Hunt Library and the new Support Services complex on Sullivan Drive will be LEED silver. We have a unified goal to be LEED certified. We are being smarter in our planning, seeing that LEED certified buildings cost less over the long run.
Bernhard asked about whether an area is being planned for creative students to experiment (tinker) in a large open space. Colby responded that such a space is being considered. It would be an entrepreneurial center or studio and would be located on the ground floor and look out to a green space. It would have lots of glass windows allowing passers by to look in.
Colby commented on the 14,000 ASF, 370-seat food court. With resident students living on Centennial Campus, breakfast and dinner along with the already planned lunch menu would be viable options. The idea is to give students reason to stay on Centennial Campus and make it real community.
CAMPUS PARKING & TRANSPORTATION SUBCOMMITTEE:
Dick Bernhard asked Alison Carpenter, Transportation Planner/Wolftrails Manager, to provide an update on bicycle and pedestrian safety. Carpenter discussed problems such as vehicles not stopping for pedestrians in crosswalks, bikes riding against traffic, pedestrians distractions to include cell phones and IPODs. She gave the group some safety tips and talked about the safety pamphlets and signs they have published. She is working with Wolf Village residents and other groups to publicize the safety concerns.
Committee members offered several comments and recommendations. Karen Ciccone said she appreciates Transportation’s effort and mentioned a safety poster she saw recently in a restroom. Aram Attarian asked how they will assess the effects of their safety program. He observed that 18-24 year olds are not as risk-averse as adults and that results in accidents on bikes and skateboards. Ann Hartell asks what happened to the sign in the crosswalk in front of the Research IV building. Tom Kendig surmised it got run over and was trashed. She mentioned the bike lanes that were on a section of Dan Allen. Brian O’Sullivan commented that if those type of lanes are not universal on campus, they are not observed. Rick Seagroves and Ann Hartell both asked about vehicle sharing programs. Hartell said that Chapel Hill was using vehicles provided by Zipcar. Kendig responded that the idea is being studied and that companies such as Hertz and Enterprise are aggressively marketing their programs. Members suggested various safety publicity methods to include bike tours with safety talks, using IPTV and My Pack Portal.
NEW BUSINESS
Dick Bernhard initiated discussion on building maintenance concerns that was generated by an earlier email from committee member Barry Croom who raised the question as to how safety and handicap access factor into determining ranking and scheduling of renovation projects. Bernhard observed that new buildings such as Engineering Building III and the Hunt Library are well-funded, while older buildings languish in disrepair. He asked Jack Colby what we can do about deteriorating buildings and what, in particular, the committee could do to be helpful to Facilities Division is addressing the many maintenance problems.
Jack Colby discussed the Facilities Condition Assessment Program (FCAP), which is documenting the $500 million maintenance problems. Statewide there are 13,000 buildings and the maintenance backlog is in the billions. Since it is highly unlikely that a Bond Program would be created to handle the problem, the only recourse is repair & renovation funding. In years past, we averaged $10 million for the needed maintenance work. Now we get even less. Things are fixed now on an emergency basis.
Colby suggested that the committee encourage the vice chancellor to seek alternative means of funding to take care of old buildings. The issue needs to be a top 10 issue with the Board of Governors. State Construction Office is not doing anything as a result of FCAP. We need to send the message that the maintenance issue is important. Bernhard said the issue should be addressed at the next meeting.
There was no other new business. The committee adjourned at 5:00 p.m. The next meeting of the PEC is scheduled for April 8, 2010 in Winslow Hall Conference Room.