Graduate students from Georgia Bizios’ and Paul Tesar’s Advanced Architectural Design (ARC503) classes traveled to Bynum, NC to visit Clyde Jones, the nationally known folk/outsider artist. Jones has been making his critters since 1982, and has had his work exhibited at many galleries both locally and nationally, including the North Carolina Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Jones gave the students two alligator critters he made with their help. The critters took up residence in the wood shop on their arrival at the College of Design,



but students approached the Design Library to request that the critters be able to have a permanent home there; expressing a desire for them to have “more intellectual surroundings.” The Design Library staff was delighted to have them.



Since space is limited in the library, the critters were placed on top of the stacks where they cast a benevolent eye on the students and faculty researching below.

Contact: David Hiscoe, NCSU Libraries, (919) 513-3425


The North Carolina State University Libraries, in conjunction with the J. Murrey Atkins Library at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the North Carolina State Archives, has received a substantial grant to digitize 3,831 architectural drawings and 923 photographs documenting approximately 730 buildings constructed from 1900 to 1940.

Titled Beaux Arts to Modernism: Early Twentieth Century Architecture in North Carolina, the project will digitize drawings of Richard C. Biberstein, Martin E. Boyer, Eric G. Flannagan, Northup & O’Brien, and Herbert Woodley Simpson—five architects/architectural firms who designed important and representative buildings of the time period. This project will create an online resource available to scholars, educators, students, and the general public.

The period covered by this project was an important one in North Carolina history. A large number of buildings were constructed as the state saw significant urban growth and industrial expansion. Many of the buildings from this period still stand today and are of interest to architects, historians, preservationists, and the general public. The early twentieth century also saw the professionalization of architecture with the establishment of an academic architecture program at NC State University, the creation of professional organizations, and the licensing of the profession by the state.

The New South economy demanded new and specialized building types reflecting complex functions: factories, skyscrapers, mill villages, suburban houses, apartment buildings, auditoriums, hospitals, and other structures. Also during this era such buildings as city halls, post offices, courthouses, train stations, hotels, and churches were treated more prominently than in previous times. Civic boosters wanted “showpieces,” and the architects obliged with buildings in styles then popular in the United States—first various historically based styles (Beaux Arts, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Craftsman, Moravian Revival, etc.) and later Art Deco and Modernist styles.

Richard C. Biberstein and his firm (which became Biberstein, Bowles, Meacham & Reed) were important designers of mills and other industrial buildings. Their work includes Nantucket Mills (Eden) and the Nebel Knitting Mill (Charlotte).

Martin E. Boyer was a designer of prestigious residences in Charlotte’s Myers Park and other early suburbs. He also planned the reconstruction of the Mint Museum in the 1930s.

Eric G. Flannagan designed Henderson High School, Lee County Hospital, and a variety of other buildings, especially schools, colleges, and hospitals in small towns in the Piedmont and eastern regions of the state.

Northup & O'Brien were the architects of numerous buildings in the state’s major cities, including Graylyn in Winston-Salem, Durham’s Snow Building, and the Department of Justice Building in Raleigh. Northup developed the “Moravian Revival” style based on historic North Carolina precedents.

Herbert Woodley Simpson designed stately homes, churches, and commercial buildings in Greenville, New Bern, and other eastern North Carolina communities.

Beaux Arts to Modernism will create a single web resource that will facilitate research that compares the work of different architects or different buildings of a single city or across regions. Researchers will be spared the time and distance of traveling to Charlotte and Raleigh, as well as the cost of making photocopies. Through this digitization project, patrons will also be able to access materials that they might not otherwise be able to view at the libraries and archives because of their fragility and size. The project will result in less handling of the original drawings and photographs, thus ensuring their preservation.

In addition to the online drawings and photographs, Beaux Arts to Modernism will also feature virtual 3D models of 30–35 buildings. Created with Google Sketchup™ software, the virtual models will provide researchers a unique way to study these historic buildings without actually visiting the sites. The web site will also feature maps to indicate locations of buildings, timelines of architects and buildings, and K-12 educational resources.

“We are proud to join our colleagues and capitalize on the strengths of the NCSU Libraries’ Special Collections in architecture and design,” says Susan Nutter, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries at NC State University. “We will build something that will be invaluable to those—both scholars and the general public—who love the transformative work that North Carolina architects did in the last century.”

Beaux Arts to Modernism will draw upon the success of other architectural history resources developed by the NCSU Libraries. The Built Heritage of North Carolina: Historic Architecture in the Old North State project digitized 5,401 slides and photographs and 2,710 drawings documenting buildings primarily constructed in the 1700s and 1800s. The NCSU Libraries has also created North Carolina Architects and Builders, an online biographical dictionary that highlights hundreds of the architects and builders responsible for North Carolina's architectural culture for more than 300 years.

Beaux Arts to Modernism: Early Twentieth Century Architecture in North Carolina is made possible, by funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources. For more information, please contact Todd Kosmerick, University Archivist, at todd_kosmerick@ncsu.edu or (919)513-3673.

Contact: David Hiscoe, NCSU Libraries, (919) 513-3425

(Raleigh, NC)—The North Carolina State University Libraries and architectural historian Catherine Bishir have collaborated to publish North Carolina Architects and Builders, the authoritative resource on the men and women who shaped the architectural culture and heritage of the state. Delivered as a state-of-the-art online tool instead of a traditional book, the site is a marquee example of what can be accomplished when original, innovative scholarship is powered up by the digital expertise of today’s new generation of professional librarians.

The standard scholarly work on North Carolina architects and builders has long been Architects and Builders in North Carolina: a History of the Practice of Building (University of North Carolina Press, 1990), by Bishir, Charlotte V. Brown, Carl R. Lounsbury, and Ernest H. Wood III. The authors originally intended to complement it with an authoritative biographical dictionary on the architects, builders, and artisans of the state.

When Bishir turned renewed attention to the project in the last decade, she explains that “the project underwent a serendipitous paradigm shift,” as she began to imagine the transformational way that scholarly, collaborative publishing could be done on the Internet.

“When Catherine came to us with her idea,” says Susan Nutter, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries at NC State University, “I knew we had the staff on board with the expertise and enthusiasm to embrace the work. And I was delighted to have a signature project that could highlight the great work of our faculty and capitalize on the strengths of the NCSU Libraries’ Special Collections in architecture and design. We have built something that will be invaluable to those—both scholars and the general public—who love the architecture and the culture of North Carolina.”

Combining the expertise of over forty authors with the NCSU Libraries’ leadership in digital publishing and with collections from numerous state and national cultural institutions, the web site provides extensive biographical accounts, building lists, and bibliographical information about architects, builders, and other artisans who planned and built North Carolina's architecture.

Unlike traditionally published scholarly works of the past, the web site will continue to grow on a regular basis as scholars extend and expand their work. At launch, the site covers approximately 170 North Carolina professionals and 1500 buildings. But because it is an online resource, it can continuously be updated as the array of scholars working on it continue to add new entries—future-proofing the resource and demonstrating one of the powerful advantages of online publishing of reference and research materials.

As an online tool, North Carolina Architects and Builders also provides powerful abilities to sort, search, and browse its content in ways not available with traditional printed materials. Researchers, for instance, can explore the site’s material by architect, by building name or type, by location, by the years that an architect practiced, or by the place of a builder’s office or birth—sorting the results in ways to fit the individual needs of the researcher’s project.

“The website is wonderful,” according to Howard Davis, Professor of Architecture at the University of Oregon and author of The Culture of Building. "What an appealing, easy-to-use, clear product. A model for the other 49 states. . . that I hope we will pursue here in Oregon."

David Hiscoe, NCSU Libraries, (919) 513-3425

(Raleigh, NC, 2009)— Snøhetta, the lead designer for North Carolina State University’s planned James B Hunt Jr. Library, has been honored with the 2009 Mies van der Rohe Award, Europe’s most prized award for architectural excellence. Also known as the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture, the honor was awarded for the design of the National Opera House in Oslo, Norway, the largest cultural center built in the country in 700 years.

Rapidly becoming an iconic building for Norway in the way that the Sydney Opera House is for Australia, the National Opera House is known for its bold integration with the surrounding landscape. Its sloping roof rises out of the adjacent fjord so that the building itself is not clearly distinguishable from the water that fronts it. According to jury chair Francis Rambert, "It is more than just a building. It is first an urban space, a gift to the city." Snøhetta is also known for its designs for the Alexandria National Library in Alexandria, Egypt, and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York.

Snøhetta is working with Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee, the North Carolina-based executive architect for the new Hunt Library, to deliver a similarly iconic heart for NC State’s Centennial Campus. Located on Centennial Campus’ academic oval, the new library will embody the spirit of NC State’s competitive advantage in science and technology, providing a research library that will be a major factor in attracting and retaining the best faculty, students and corporate partners.

The new library will also help close a serious seating gap for the NCSU Libraries, which can currently seat only five percent of NC State’s students. The new Hunt Library will double the amount of seats, getting NC State closer to the UNC system mandate to provide library seating for twenty percent of the student body. The NCSU Libraries has made its mark by providing a technology incubator for generations of NC State students and faculty. From its iconic design, to its robotic automatic retrieval system, to the latest in computing and collaboration technologies, Hunt Library will continue to prepare the NC State community to lead in a technology-driven economy.

The Hunt Library will also provide a new home for the Institute for Emerging Issues, a public policy “think-and-do” tank that brings together leaders from business, non-profit organizations, government and higher education to tackle some of the biggest issues facing North Carolina's future growth and prosperity.

The James B Hunt Jr. Library is currently scheduled to open in 2012.

Please come to the Design Library this week and help us celebrate "Image Awareness Week." We want to be sure everyone is aware of all the art/design image collections and the image-related services available through the Design Library and NCSU Libraries.

Image collections include the NEW Design Library Image Database, ARTstor, CAMIO, and Grove Art Online. Image services available include image requests and digital copystand photography, scanning of the existing slides in our collection, training on use of image collections, and Contribute!- our digital image/slide donation program.

Please stop by the Design Library to learn more about these valuable resources and services. We have bookmarks, informational brochures and a computer workstation for browsing the image collections, and also lots of homemade cookies to give away!