Kimely-Horn navigates the university’s rules on salvaging construction waste to pay homage to a campus icon.
By Kyle Wurtz
The interim landscape recalled both Harrelson Hall and the Piedmont?s ecology. Courtesy Kimley-Horn.
Bricks are so ubiquitous on the campus of North Carolina State University (NC State) that it is a tradition for graduating students to take one as a memento. Hundreds of thousands of fired clay pavers adorn the campus, thanks to the geological composition of the Piedmont, where red clay dominates the soil. The most emblematic site on campus is University Plaza, which was initially paved with more than half a million red bricks donated by the North Carolina Bricklayers Association and white bricks purchased from South Carolina manufacturers. Designed by Richard C. Bell Associates and completed in 1968, University Plaza was among the first landscape architecture projects to be funded by the state on an educational campus. The plaza is an example of the university?s incremental development, and it was largely designed in response to a circular classroom building called Harrelson Hall, completed in 1961. Known as ?the Brickyard,? the plaza has become so central to the university?s identity that it was distinguished as one of the campus?s ?Hallowed Spaces? by the 2023 Physical Master Plan.
From the beginning, however, Harrelson Hall was fraught with challenges. The wedge-shaped lecture halls had curved walls and sloping floors that caused an echo and ex...