Technician reviewed over 700 buildings on NC State’s campus, identified over 100 that students, faculty and staff frequent and compiled a searchable database of these buildings with their construction dates. 

This list isn’t exhaustive; it comprises select buildings used for instruction, research or administration, and it does not include all building renovations. 

But this research reveals a number of residence halls and class buildings that were built or renovated between 1950 and 1979, when the EPA says there was widespread use of PCBs in construction and renovation.

Sources

Technician used NC State Facilities’ list of campus buildings to select 106 buildings that people tend to occupy continuously or semi-continuously. Buildings occupied to a limited extent, such as those used for storage, are not included in Technician’s database. The EPA’s definitions of high-occupancy and low-occupancy buildings informed this selection.

The bulk of the build dates in the database are from NC State University Libraries’ Campus Buildings, Grounds and Landmarks Historical State Timeline and the Special Collections Research Center repository. In 28 cases, Technician sourced build dates from the Facilities website.

In one case — to determine the build date for the Avent Ferry Complex — Technician used the build date listed on the Timmons Group website, which was contracted to provide engineering and planning services in the complex.

Limitations

This database is intended to be informational, not prognostic. Though research suggests that PCB products could impact up to 60% of the U.S. building stock, the EPA recommends building materials be tested directly for the presence of PCBs.

Note that the buildings selected do not represent all campus buildings that people tend to occupy frequently. 

While Technician was able to verify some building renovations, this information is extremely limited.

Updates

Technician is committed to building a more comprehensive database of campus buildings, particularly by updating the database with building renovations.  

For transparency, when the database is updated, the date and substance of the updates will be listed below. Follow Technician on X and Instagram to see when it’s updated.