This series primarily contains letters generated by Claude McKinney, the coordinator of Centennial Campus from 1988 to 2000. Beginning in 1991, McKinney produced indices of these letters, noting the date and topic. Additionally, McKinney kept detailed descriptions of meetings attended and telephone conversations, providing dates, times, locations, lists of participants, and a description of all topics discussed. These letters and meeting notes are intermingled and arranged chronologically. Frequently the letters are formal or informal communications with individuals or organizations that might be interested in locating their business on Centennial Campus. McKinney's administrative letters and meeting notes cover a wide range of topics including zoning, infrastructure development, real estate, master planning and design, transportation/fixed guideway systems, budgeting, environmental concerns, residential housing, the Centennial Campus Middle School and the proposed High Technology Academy, the golf course/hotel/conference center complex, other research parks, and North Carolina State University's struggle to install a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. McKinney includes a large amount of correspondence generated in his role as president of the Triangle Universities Center for Advanced Studies, Inc. (TUCASI). Additionally, the early letters describe McKinney's transition from the College of Design to his new role and his continuing involvement in arts organizations like Blue Marble, a children's center for design and invention. Frequent correspondents include the Centennial Campus Management and Design Teams, Chancellor Bruce Poulton, Chancellor Larry Monteith, George Worsley, Charlie Leffler, Frank Hark, William Klarman, Tom Hines, Dick Dougherty, Charlie Moreland, and Jaine Place. This series is also made up of materials related to presentations given by McKinney and other Centennial Campus administrators. The presentations are generally broad in scope describing the origin, development, and long-term goals of the campus. A smaller number are focused on campus design and transportation projects, such as the proposed fixed guideway system. These files contain lists of scheduled presentations, background information, and some presentation texts. They are also arranged chronologically.

This series collects materials describing the Centennial Campus administrative structure and documents generated by a number of its organizing or consulting entities. The most significant of these is the Centennial Campus Management Team, which directed all aspects of campus development. In April 1989, Chancellor Bruce Poulton dissolved it and divided the expanding workload among multiple committees. The work of these more narrowly focused groups is dispersed throughout the Design and Development series (Series 5). The administration series also contains files from the Chancellor's Centennial Campus Advisory Committee, the Trustees Building and Property Committee, and Centennial Campus Partnership Office monthly reports. The files are arranged alphabetically, with their contents in chronological order.

The Carley Capital Group (later known as Carley-Hines) began discussions with NCSU in 1985. When its Master Plan concepts were approved in April 1986, the group began working as the master developer of Centennial Campus. This series contains general information about the evolution of the group and budgets. There are copies of the agreements made between the group and NC State. The largest concentration of material is made up of invoices submitted by the group on behalf of themselves and other members of the design team, including Land Design, Inc., Arthur Erickson Architects, Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., McEvoy Engineering Services, Inc., and others. The files are arranged alphabetically with the invoices arranged chronologically.

The Early Development series has two major components, Dorothea Dix property files and materials produced by Dr. Franklin Hart. The Dorothea Dix files contain correspondence, reports, agreements, articles, and other documents describing the transfer of the Dorothea Dix property to North Carolina State University and early efforts to determine how best to use the land. Dr. Franklin Hart served as Vice Chancellor for Research during this time period and was an early member of the Centennial Campus Management Team. His files focus on research and development facilities issues. Although Dr. Hart's files overlap materials found in the Dorothea Dix files, they also contain some correspondence written by or specifically directed to Dr. Hart.

The Design and Development series contains four subseries: Alphabetical Files, Buildings and Tenants, Infrastructure and Environment, and Transportation. Although there is substantial overlap among the subseries, they mirror the arrangement of the files by the Centennial Campus Partnership Office. The Alphabetical Files broadly address issues of design and development, including design proposals and workshops, development guidelines, marketing, master planning, Centennial Campus history, and these contain official documents such as minutes, plans, presentations, and agreements. Several folders contain materials collected by Charles Leffler, N.C. State's Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities. Additionally, Jaine Place, a Centennial Campus partnership development specialist, produced files for a number of development projects, including the Prospectus and Ten-Year Celebration. The files of the Naming Task Force which set up procedures for assigning names to buildings and roads on the campus are also located in this subseries. The Buildings and Tenants subseries is made up of files on individual Centennial Campus partners and/or the buildings they occupied. The files collect correspondence and other documents regarding negotiations with the partners and technical materials regarding the construction of their facilities. Several files represent groups that ultimately did not locate on Centennial Campus. There is also some information on prospective tenants. The Infrastructure and Environment subseries is made up of files that describe the natural environment of the campus and large scale projects to construct lighting, sewers, roads, and other vital components of the campus's built environment. The subseries includes correspondence, reports, proposals, agreements, and technical documents detailing specific roads, real estate, rezoning requests, environmental assessments, Lake Raleigh, a proposed golf course, and the Support Systems Committee which addressed these infrastructure developments. The Transportation subseries primarily contains files describing efforts to construct a monorail/fixed guideway system connecting Centennial Campus and Main Campus. Additional materials concern bike paths and contact with the Triangle Transit Authority regarding regional transportation concerns. The files in each subseries are arranged alphabetically, with their contents in chronological order.