Part of D.H. Hill Library will be closed off from May 2019 to August 2020 for a huge renovation project that will be re-doing the first floor entrance, the second and third floor bookstacks, as well as part of the fourth floor bookstacks.

The Division of Academic and Student Affairs (DASA) was the major leading force in the decision to go through with the renovation.

According to Patrick Deaton, the associate director for learning spaces and capital management, the first-floor renovation will make changes to the library entrance from the Brickyard. After the renovation, students will be able to see four floors of the building and stairs will go to the third floor. 

Because of this, the Brickyard entrance will be closed for the entirety of the project and the Hillsborough street entrance will be reopened and will remain open even after the project is complete. The general study areas near this entrance will be shifted to allow for new turnstiles and a security desk at the entrance.

Chris Johnson, a facility planner in the Office of the University Architect and library project manager, said that the effort was requested by DASA to include programs such as the tutorial center in the library. 

“Despite being situated within the Library, the project was initiated at the request of Mike Mullen as a DASA and provost’s office initiative to consolidate university tutorial and writing assistance programs within the library,” Johnson said. 

DASA will take over the second floor of the library, setting up new areas for tutoring and writing assistance. However, after a certain time each day, the services being offered will close down and those areas will turn into group study sections. There will also be some offices on the second floor for DASA staff. 

“What we are imagining is that someone goes to the writing center for help, but they then realize they could use some help with research,” Deaton said. “There’s a lot of back and forth between our services that way.”

While the renovation is taking place, the group study rooms on the second, third and fourth floor will be taken apart and moved to other floors in the library. 

According to Deaton, the third floor renovation will include a larger visualization studio for students, which will be approximately 20 percent larger than the current studio and will include a 360 degree projection that neither Hill nor Hunt has currently. The remainder of the space will be used for general studying.

The offices that reside on the third floor and face Hillsborough St. will be removed, allowing for study spaces to be created that will overlook the street.

The overall budget for this project is slightly under $16 million, according to Johnson. The official name for the project is Academic Success Center, and it is being referred to that way by campus administration and the UNC system. 

While the first few floors of the library will either be partially or completely closed off for a little over a year, Deaton believes that the renovations that are going to be made should be incredibly impactful for DASA’s tutoring center and students’ studying and tutoring experience.

“I’m excited about this project and how it continues the transformation of D. H. Hill Library,” Deaton said. “With the new Academic Success Center and new technology-rich libraries spaces, D. H. Hill Library will be NC State’s one-stop hub for learning, teaching, research, collaboration, and innovation. This renovation will have a major impact on student and faculty success.”