World-class architects make mark on campus

Laced, stitched and tightly knit, separate but intertwined metallic paths create a seamless faade upon the James B. Hunt Jr. Library.

Answering what role a library holds in the 21st Century, architectural firms Snhetta and PBC&Ls vision has come to fruition five years after its conception.

With textiles, engineering and multi-discipline collaboration in mind, Hunt was designed not around other structures, but around student betterment, said Shann Rushing, PBC&L associate architect for the library.

[Libraries] have been first and foremost a depository for books, Rushing said. Secondarily, it has been a place to access those books and to read and study.

The idea of the library of the 21st century is sort of the antithesis of that, Rushing said.

Given the chance to design a library of the modern age, Rushing said that he and fellow architects followed a vision of collaboration and socialization, quick to break the keep quiet stereotype.

It is an educational environment but also a social environment, Rushing said.

The team drew architects from Snhetta of Norway and New York who won the original bid, and PBC&L, a Raleigh firm given the title of executive architects.

Nic Rader, Snhetta architect and senior designer for Hunt, described the collaboration as smooth, sharing a vision with PBC&L.

It was really an unprecedented experience in work methodology for us, Rader said.

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World-class architects make mark on campus