NCSU Libraries News Blog tag Hunt Library

The Boston Globe’s “Travel” section chooses the Hunt Library as one of the nation’s “5 novel libraries.”

The James B. Hunt Jr. Library was honored with the Non-Residential Green Design Award by the City of Raleigh at its sixth annual Environmental Awards celebration Monday evening, April 22.  The library was praised “for its sustainable design and technology that reduces energy use by 31 percent.”   The ceremony was held in the Nature Research Center wing of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. More than 250 people attended, leaving standing-room only.

The library is expected to receive LEED Silver certification, making it the fourth LEED certified building on campus.  See the Hunt Library sustainability site for more information about how the Hunt Library represents NC State’s commitment to leading by example in advancing sustainability as a moral imperative and as an economic advantage.

News 14 Carolina profiles the new Hunt Library, a space that Chancellor Randy Woodson explains in the piece “is about innovation. It’s about transformation and it’s about economic development.”

The official magazine of the American Institute of Architects says that Snøhetta and the NCSU Libraries “set a new benchmark for technologically-sophisticated collaborative learning spaces with the design of the new Hunt Library.”

ABC11’s Elaina Athans’ video coverage of the April 3 official dedication of the Hunt Library observes that  “jobs are the driver of this facility” and concludes with Chancellor Randy Woodson that “this is a campus you come to to do amazing things–and here you do them in an amazing space.”

WRAL’s Renee Chou explores the Hunt Library’s place as the new heart for NC State’s Centennial Campus, ending with Chancellor Randy Woodson’s observation that “it’s about transformation, it’s about economic development–we wanted a space that says that to the world.”

See the video at http://www.wral.com/news/education/video/12301786/#/vid12301786

The News & Observer explores the over 75 different chairs in more than 100 colors in the Hunt Library, including the new Hunt chair designed by the Thos. Moser firm.   According to reporter Renee Elder, “the halls offer unexpected nooks where groups of students gather. Flexible seating permits outside-the-box interaction, and open spaces seem to invite casual sprawling. Together, these things make the 221,000-square-foot building . . . seem almost cozy.”

Read more at http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/04/03/2800002/custom-designed-hunt-chair-at.html

On April 3, 2013, North Carolina State University will officially dedicate the James B. Hunt Jr. Library.  Setting a new benchmark for architecturally inspiring and technologically sophisticated learning and collaborative spaces, the Hunt Library is designed to be a decisive competitive edge for the university, an institution that has forged its reputation by teaching students to live on the fore of change and enabling its researchers to do transformative work.

A central tenet of the Hunt Library is to democratize access to the technologies that are driving our economy and culture.

Five huge Christie MicroTiles high-definition display walls give faculty and students hands-on experience with the large-scale visualization tools that are reshaping how we create and view data and digital media.  The Game Lab supports NC State’s Digital Games Research Center by providing an experimental commons to explore collaborative game design and the role of gaming in education and training.

The library’s Teaching and Visualization Lab and the Creativity Studio offer unique visualization and simulation capabilities that help define the next generation of teaching and learning spaces.  3-D printing and extensive digital media production facilities enable rapid iteration for prototyping and give students and faculty more of the tools they need to lead tomorrow’s workforce.  State-of-the-art videoconferencing and telepresence technologies enable collaboration with colleagues across the state and around the world.  And technology permeates all of the group study rooms throughout the building where students gather constantly to learn and work together.

The Hunt Library’s robotic bookBot automated retrieval system is capable of holding two million volumes in 1/9 the space of conventional shelving. Virtual Browse, which brings serendipitous discovery to the 21st century, allows users to see a virtual shelf of the materials that are classified near the resources found by their initial search.

Early projects that have already capitalized on the library’s technologies include an immersive simulator to train naval ROTC midshipmen to operate the bridge of a modern warship, a 3-D recreation of St. Paul’s Cross during John Donne’s tenure at the cathedral that demonstrates the impact of 17th- century sermons as they were actually delivered, a student-created video game based on the Hunt Library’s book circulation patterns, and prototypes of a range of engineering projects including tactile models to allow the visually impaired to navigate complex traffic intersections.

The bold architecture of the building itself reflects its bold purpose: to provide the inspiring spaces that encourage future leaders to learn, work, and create more brilliantly.  Recently named one of the ten most innovative architectural firms in the world by Fast Company, Snøhetta—the Hunt Library’s lead designer—has been honored with the Mies van der Rohe Prize for Contemporary Architecture and the European Award for Urban Public Space.  The firm has won international acclaim for such projects as the Library of Alexandria, the Oslo Opera House, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum Pavilion, and the redesign of New York City’s Times Square.  Executive architects Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee are responsible for some of the most memorable buildings in North Carolina.

There is perhaps no library anywhere that has been more consciously crafted with what Snøhetta principal Craig Dykers has called “the unseen aspects of place-making”—the ability for the architecture to create spaces that encourage collaboration, reflection, creativity, and awe.  The inspirational impact of the new building is reflected in the more than 1,700 Instagram photos that the NC State community has uploaded to the My #HuntLibrary social media site since the library opened on January 2, 2013.

The Hunt Library serves both as NC State’s second main library and as the intellectual and social heart of the university’s Centennial Campus. Named the nation’s top research park in 2007, Centennial Campus is a nexus of collaboration where students and faculty work with more than sixty corporate and governmental partners to craft the innovations that will shape tomorrow.

“This building was designed from the start to be an icon, a dramatic representation of how transformational technology and a commitment to the growth of our community will thrust NC State University even further into the foreground,” explains Chancellor W. Randolph Woodson. “It embodies what NC State stands for, a beacon for technology and transformation in the 21st century.”

“Our vision was to give NC State a signature library that would help us recruit the very best students and the very best faculty and to serve the community as an inspiring place of excellence and passion and ideas and vision,” concludes Susan K. Nutter, vice provost and director of the NCSU Libraries.  “You cannot be in this building without realizing that something very important is happening at this university.”

Results magazine explains how the new Hunt Library “harnesses the tools of the digital age to spark an innovation revolution.”

Complex magazine’s Art&Design website has ranked the new Hunt Library as one of the “25 coolest college libraries” in the world in a list that includes a range of buildings from beautifully traditional spaces such Trinity College Library in Dublin to the stunningly ultra-modern University of Indonesia Central Library in Jakarta.

WUNC’s The State of Things asks, “what does the Hunt Library suggest that libraries can be” and explores the future of libraries in the age of Google.

In addition to an interview with Susan K. Nutter, vice provost and director of the NCSU Libraries, the program includes Clymer Cease with Hunt Library executive architects Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee; Ken Hillis, professor of media and technology studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-author of Google and the Culture of Search; and Barbara Moran, professor at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science.

You can listen at:  http://wunc.org/post/what-library-today-s-high-tech-age.

The new Hunt Library on Centennial Campus is big, it’s different, and it’s filled with technologies and spaces that bear some serious exploring and experimentation.

Designed to support new ways to learn, create content, and collaborate for NC State University’s students, faculty, and partners, this library is both technology-rich and visually interesting.

You can, of course, jump in and find your own way around.  Or you can take one of the regularly scheduled tours.

Now though, you can also download the new NCSU Libraries Mobile Tours app and guide yourself around this iconic heart of learning and research.

The D.H. Hill Library too!

The app also supplies a self-guided tour of the D. H. Hill Library.

Features

The mobile tour is free to download, easy to use, and features:

• Photos, text descriptions, and audio narrations of key library features, technologies, and spaces
• Images and maps of tour stops
• Multiple tour options that let you explore the building by floor or by themes such as “learning spaces” or architectural highlights
• Controls that make it easy to pause, play, fast forward, and rewind through the audio tour
• Additional information such as library events and easy access to the Libraries’ mobile site

Added bonus–the app lets you snap a photo (or use one we’ve already loaded) and send a virtual postcard letting friends know you have seen the face of NC State in this century.

How to download

You can download the NCSU Libraries Mobile Tours app for free at iTunes, Google Play or the Apple App Store.

In its annual review of the state of innovation in our economy, Fast Company has ranked Snøhetta as number two in its “top 10 innovative companies in architecture.”

The My #HuntLibrary photo contest has been a huge success! The NC State community has contributed over 1200 Instagram images to the project, simply by adding the hashtag #HuntLibrary to their Instagram photos. This crowdsourced photo project has really captured the spirit of the Hunt Library and has been a great way to introduce it to the world. While the My #HuntLibrary website will live on, the contest will end at 11:59PM February 22, 2013.

The winner will be selected by a jury of librarians from among the most popular photographs in My #HuntLibrary. The popularity score is determined by a combination of battle wins and “likes” on the photograph. Please note – likes on Instagram do not count towards the popularity score! “Likes” have to be submitted on the My #HuntLibrary app. Also, only public images taken with Instagram are eligible to win the iPad Mini. We currently don’t have the ability to include pictures from other social media sites or private photos on Instagram.

The winner will be awarded and recognized at an upcoming NCSU Libraries Student Advisory Board meeting.

The iPad Mini isn’t the only reason to participate! NCSU Libraries will preserve the best #HuntLibrary photos forever in the University’s official digital archives so they become a permanent part of NC State history. If your photo is selected, watch for a comment from us on your #HuntLibrary photo!

To browse #HuntLibrary photos, vote on your favorites, and see complete contest rules and terms of use, head to My #HuntLibrary at http://go.ncsu.edu/myhunt!

Any questions? Email myhuntlibrary@lists.ncsu.edu.

In a “first look” piece, Architectural Record, the monthly magazine dedicated to architecture and interior design and known for exploring cutting-edge designs, has published a photo gallery on the new Hunt Library.

For twenty years, the Triangle Business Journal–the local area’s most influential commentator on events and trends shaping the economy in central North Carolina–has annually awarded “The Space” honors to real estate leaders and projects that have contributed significantly to economic development in the region.

In a January 31 ceremony, the Hunt Library was chosen as the “Top University Development” for the year.  Noting that the new library was sure to become a destination for visitors to the area as well as a model for academic libraries around the world, the award continued in part:

“The new James B. Hunt Jr. Library at N.C. State University’s Centennial Campus is not just a building where books can be stored and retrieved. This  structure anchoring Centennial Campus’ academic oval opened to university students and researchers in January 2013 equipped with the latest technology in interactive computing, multimedia creation and large-scale visualization.

The Hunt Library, named in honor of former North Carolina governor Jim Hunt, has about 100 rooms for students in individual study or group projects, storage space for nearly 2 million texts, and is also the new home for the Institute for Emerging Issues that has been championed by Hunt.

Consultants and contractors who worked with N.C. State University Libraries on the project include the Oslo, Norway-based Snohetta design firm and Raleigh design firm Pearce Brinkley Cease & Lee, Skanska USA, DEGW, Cole Jenest & Stone, Susan Hatchell Landscape Architecture, Stewart Engineering, ARUP, Affiliated Engineers Inc., The Sextant Group, Dematic, Pivotal and Davis Langdon.”

The Oslo Opera House

In one week alone, Snøhetta, the Hunt Library’s lead designer, has garnered high-profile articles in two of the most influential magazines in the US.

Snøhetta has been chosen to, in effect, redesign New York City’s Times Square, and The New Yorker has published a feature on the architects’ goal of “using architecture to alter a city’s relationship to itself.”

In turn, The New York Review of Books–in response to a new book about Snøhetta’s Oslo Opera House–has produced a review of Snohetta’s impact on modern architecture to date.  The Oslo Opera House, the article concludes, “has given the Norwegian capital one of Europe’s most enjoyable and instantly beloved public spaces of the past half-century.”

The Hunt Library comes with quite a pedigree!

The Hunt Library at night

ABC11 continues its exploration of the new Hunt Library by interviewing students on how this “new focal point for learning” is changing their experience on campus.

Their reactions?

“I just want to say ‘thank you’ to the UNC system,” concludes one.

“The Hunt Library, in my view, is the academic library with the widest array of technologies in the country”–that’s the conclusion of an Associated Press article that went on the wire this weekend and has been picked up by newspapers, TV stations, and websites across the country.

Now readers of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle, the San Antonio Express, AOL.com, and the Washington Observer–among many others–are seeing the face of NC State University in the 21st century.

The print piece nails the story, but the companion AP video story also gives a great book’s-eye view of what it’s like to zoom away in the bookBot.

Curbed.com, the design and real estate online site, declares that the Hunt Library “may even be enough to reseat MVRDV’s Book Mountain as world’s most awesome library.”