University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Caronlina

Completion: 2004
Size: 35,000 GSF
Cost: $54 million

TThe Rams Head facility is an outgrowth of a two-year campus planning project that Ayers/Saint/Gross conducted for the University. In the campus plan, the site was defined as the hinge between the historic north campus and the more modern south campus.

The new facility spans a former surface parking lot and is nestled in a conifer and deciduous forest. Three bridges will connect campus paths and lead pedestrians through the woods to the elevated quadrangle on top of the 700-car underground parking garage.

The new landscaped quadrangle echoes the north campus and is flanked by the 32,650 gsf student dining hall, with outdoor seating and sports café, and a 43,000 gsf recreation building that will give the expanding student population access to basketball courts, a running track, fitness area, climbing wall, and squash courts. The café will have advanced video and internet technology.

Support services will be on the lower levels and accessed from the main floor by service elevators and stairs. A grocery story is planned for the street level.

The building’s height and parking deck take advantage of the natural grade differential across the site. The decision to locate the dining hall and rec center on top of the deck arose from the necessity to save open spaces. Stormwater management will be accomplished through green roof technologies. Plaza-level planting beds will absorb the runoff from impervious surfaces and will be irrigated with non-potable rainwater. The roof leaders will assist in the irrigation of turf and plantings. Underground streams will be redirected to an open field, where they will be day-lighted and tied into a local watershed.