North Carolina State University Plaza

Landscape Architecture and Civil Engineering
by HadenStanziale

North Carolina State University, located in the heart of Raleigh, North Carolina, boasts more than 34,000 students and over 8,000 faculty and staff. This urban campus is globally recognized for its programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

As 90 percent of the surface area is impervious, two rain gardens (right) were located behind SAS Hall. Downspouts are built into the building. Four of the downspouts lead into an 8-inch PVC collection manifold that distributes rainwater to an 18-inch slot drain at the base of the building that feeds into the rain gardens.

Located along Stinson Drive, a significant transportation corridor within the core of the campus, the School of Math and Statistics is a 53,000 square foot classroom building with faculty offices, laboratories and a courtyard caf????(C).

In addition, the adjacent Park Shops Building, originally used strictly for mechanical engineering laboratories, was renovated into classrooms, laboratories and a caf????(C) as an integral part of this project. The project site is that of the historic Riddick Football Stadium, the venue for the school?EUR??,,????'???s football and baseball games from 1907 to 1965.
As landscape architects and civil engineers, HadenStanziale?EUR??,,????'???s charge was to create a user-friendly campus space: a plaza for students to gather, study, catch the bus or just relax. The plaza would also tie the new three-story math and statistics building, later named SAS Hall, and the renovated Park Shops Building, but still allow traffic to pass safely through the plaza along Stinson Drive.

Stinson Drive bisects the plazas of the new SAS Hall (left) and the Park Shops Building (right). HadenStanziale?EUR??,,????'???s landscape architects and engineers wanted to pave the drive like the plaza, grade it slightly lower to give it a visual edge and border it with stainless steel bollards. The university opted for the street to remain asphalt to ?EUR??,,????'??read?EUR??,,????'?? as a road. The red paving is Eagle Bay ?EUR??,,????'??Crimson Range.?EUR??,,????'??? Bluestone pavers make up the four-foot wide bands crossing the road.

The Golden Section
While the goal for the plaza was primarily functional, the concept of the paving pattern was to give purpose to this space, which is most associated with mathematics and statistics. Through a series of special studies, HadenStanziale organized the plaza based on the Golden Section. The Golden Section, also called the golden ratio or ?EUR??,,????'??divine proportion,?EUR??,,????'?? refers to applying the ratio of phi to the geometry of a space, building or art works. The Egyptians were the first to incorporate mathematical proportions in architecture and art.

The golden section is the basis for the geometric proportions of the Great Pyramid. The ratio of the slant height of the pyramid (hypotenuse of the triangle) to the distance from ground center (half the base dimension) is 1.61804, a startling precision that is only one unit off phi at the fifth decimal place (1.61803)! The major ancient Greek buildings, e.g. the Parthenon, were all constructed based on the golden section. And when the great Greek geometrist Pythagoras (560-480 B.C.) proved the proportions of the human figure followed the golden proportion, it had a profound effect on Greek art and subsequent artists. Leonardo Da Vinci understood how all the body?EUR??,,????'???s different parts were related by the golden section, as did Michelangelo.

The path of the curvilinear hardscape bands on the Park Shops Building side becomes a 31-foot long concrete block seat wall with a concrete tile veneer.

The pattern shown on page 67 originates within the building, extends out to the plaza and culminates at the main entrance to SAS Hall.

The paving pattern comprises a combination of lighter to darker gray square and rectangular patterns based on the Golden Section proportions. The Golden Section bands are highlighted in larger dark gray bluestone pavers. The proportional hardscape panels for the plaza are visually evident. The pavers are a combination of ?EUR??,,????'??Eagle Bay Crimson Range?EUR??,,????'???, ?EUR??,,????'??Pine Hall Old Tavern?EUR??,,????'???, Wausau ?EUR??,,????'??Random Ashler?EUR??,,????'??? and ?EUR??,,????'??Bluestone.?EUR??,,????'???

?EUR??,,????'??River Oats?EUR??,,????'??? (Chasmanthium latifolium) sprout in the water.

Site Challenges
As referenced earlier, one of the challenges for the designers was to provide a plaza that would serve SAS Hall, the existing and renovated Park Shops and keep Stinson Drive a visible, functional, safe street. While HadenStanziale?EUR??,,????'???s original concept was for Stinson Drive to be paved in the same material as the plaza, but graded slightly lower with a visual edge and stainless steel bollards. The university felt strongly the street needed to remain asphalt and ?EUR??,,????'??read?EUR??,,????'?? as a road through flanking plazas.

HadenStanziale then proposed four-foot wide curving bands crossing Stinson Drive, connecting the Park Shops Building side with the SAS Hall. The curving band on the Park Shops side becomes a seat wall. Surrounding the curvilinear band is brick paving used throughout the campus to contrast with the center plaza?EUR??,,????'???s precast concrete pavers. This concept proved successful in tying together the two flanking plazas and allowing the strong S curve of Stinson Drive to pass through the space safely.

Stormwater was critical for this project, as 90 percent of the surface area is impervious. Stormwater controls include two interconnected rain gardens of riverstone and wetlands vegetation in the rear of the building for nitrogen reduction. This project received the 2009 Honor Award from the AIA South Atlanta region.

The rain gardens include riverstone and wetland vegetation to help mitigate stormwater, including ?EUR??,,????'??Black Eyed?EUR??,,????'??? Susans, Rudbeckia occidentalis ?EUR??,,????'??Black Beauty?EUR??,,????'???, river birch (Betula nigra ?EUR??,,????'??Dura Heat?EUR??,,????'???) in the foreground and Loblolly pines.

About HadenStanziale
HadenStanziale is a landscape architecture, land planning and civil engineering firm with offices in Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina. The firm has expertise in large-scale land planning, urban design, recreation planning, graphics, detailed design, land development engineering, wastewater engineering and construction documentation.

HadenStanziale has won more than 45 state and local design awards since the firm?EUR??,,????'???s inception in 1995, including the 2011 Firm of the Year award from the North Carolina chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

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Project Team

Architects
?EUR??,,????'???? Millennium 3 Design Group
?EUR??,,????'???? Pearce Brinkley Cease & Lee

Landscape Architecture& Civil Engineering:
HadenStanziale