Durham, NC
Duke University School of Nursing was founded in 1930 and is a part of Duke University Medical Center. Ayers/Saint/Gross was selected to design the new School of Nursing and Landscape.
The design is intended to provide a new home for the School of Nursing that meets current and projected needs for the school and accomplishes this on the school’s current site. The building will provide a stronger presence for the school that will address the Duke University Medical School Clinic and Medical Center, as well as providing a new identity for the School of Nursing within the Medical School complex.
The site for the proposed Duke School of Nursing is located at the intersection of Trent and Bell Service Drives across from the Duke Medical Clinic. The existing Nursing facility is located on the northern portion of the site, which is approximately 2 acres in gross size and slopes gently from east to west. The most striking feature of the site is that it is entirely wooded with a vigorous canopy of trees. Site disturbance will be kept to a minimum to protect these trees. The woods will become the focal point of the building with a terrace opening onto this native landscape. To the South, the School of Nursing will present a public front, while enclosing a semi-private area to the North.
Two curved stone seat walls bracket the terrace and hold the grade to preserve existing trees. Walkways approach the terrace weaving through the trees from three sides. The south building entry is set up on a pedestal of mounded earth, and marked by two tiers of stone seat walls on either side of a grand stair. The lowest wall extends along the walkway to also serve as seating for the pedestrian drop off area.
A focus of this project is to design the building using sustainable design principals. As such, an effort is being made to comply with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) requirements. Landscape strategies have been implemented that include: reduction of site disturbance, tree protection, lack of irrigation systems, reduced development footprint, and the use of native plant materials.
The new School of Nursing will be constructed in two phases. Phase I will accommodate the bulk of the teaching, faculty and social spaces in the new building. Phase II will be an addition to this new building to accommodate research spaces. Upon completion of the Phase II building the existing Nursing School will be razed and a naturalized meadow established in its place at the edge of the forest. The existing school of nursing building will be used to house phase II spaces after phase I is completed and prior to completion of phase II.
Completion: 2005
Size: 3.14 Acres
Cost: $570,000
