Fitts-Woolard Hall is final step in College of Engineering’s move to NC State’s Centennial Campus
Skanska USA has broken ground on Fitts-Woolard Hall on the Centennial Campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh. The 224,000-square-foot building is the fourth in a series of engineering buildings that will complete the College of Engineering’s move to NC State’s Centennial Campus.
“Fitts-Woolard Hall and Centennial Campus serve as a showcase for NC State’s continued commitment to its nationally recognized College of Engineering,” said Greg Peele, general manager/executive vice president responsible for Skanska’s North Carolina/Virginia building operations. “We are honored to be part of the university’s efforts to serve as a driving force for North Carolina’s high-tech economy.”
The building will support broad initiatives in areas such as advanced materials and manufacturing, robotics and sensor technology, service sector engineering, critical infrastructure and security, transportation and logistics, and energy and environmental systems. Fitts-Woolard Hall will house:
• The Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• The Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering
• The College of Engineering Dean’s administrative offices.
The four-story building is designed with two entrance lobbies. These are connected by a wide corridor with views into the engineering labs and open stairs. This “Engineering on Display” will encourage campus pedestrians to pass through the building and allow the school to showcase its ongoing work.
The first floor level is built into the slope of the site with a concrete structure and below-grade cast-in-place retaining walls. The second floor level is cast-in-place elevated concrete slab construction. Levels three, four and the roof will be steel-frame construction. The skin of the building will consist of curtainwall and brick veneer. The building will house heavy labs, light labs, classrooms, grad spaces and administration offices.
Fitts-Woolard Hall gained its name as the result of a $25 million joint gift from alumni Edward P. Fitts Jr. and Edgar S. Woolard Jr., the largest given for a campus building naming in NC State’s history.
Mr. Fitts graduated from NC State with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering in 1961 and is the former president and CEO of Dopaco Inc., a packaging company he founded in 1979. Mr. Woolard, a graduate of NC State in 1956 with a bachelor’s degree in industrial systems engineering, is a former chairman and CEO of DuPont and former chairman of the board of Apple Inc.
NC State’s College of Engineering graduates more than 2,500 engineers and computer scientists each year. In the past 10 years, engineering undergraduate enrollment has grown by 22 percent and graduate enrollment has more than doubled.
Skanska previously constructed the Engineering Building III (EBIII), the third building developed for the College of Engineering on the Centennial Campus. It also built the James B. Hunt Jr. Library, located on the south side of the Centennial Campus, and the Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), a unique, cross-disciplinary instructional center that provides educational and training opportunities for biomanufacturing professionals.