Title: Wake Tech RTP Building 1
Location of Proejct: Research Triangle Park, NC
Project Completion Date: August 2018
Firm Name: Perkins&Will

Short Description: The new General Administration and Classroom Building is the first building for Wake Tech Community College’s new Research Triangle Park campus. As the first campus building, the 110,000 sf three-story form defines the future campus geometry and architectural character. The building design is conceived as a ‘campus in one’ with all necessary programs to support the new campus. The exterior of its U-shaped massing serves as a sound buffer to busy highway and railroad traffic. To the interior, the massing defines three sides of a more intimate courtyard that anchors one end of a future academic quadrangle.

Architect's Statement: As the first of eleven masterplanned buildings for Wake Technical Community College (WTCC) on their new Research Triangle Park campus, the building design is conceived as a ‘campus in one’ with all necessary programs to support the new campus. The 110,000 sf program is distributed on three floor levels and includes all aspects of a ‘first’ campus building: Classrooms, Science Labs, Technology Labs, Library, Student Center, Auditorium, Student Services, Faculty Offices and Administration. Also included is a significant Corporate Solutions Center tailored to support of surrounding high-tech companies.

Anchoring one end of a future campus quadrangle, the building forms an essential ‘first edge,’ simultaneously defining campus geometry as well as the architectural character of the future campus. The ‘U’ shaped massing ‘exterior’ acts as a buffer to adjacent highway and railroad noise and projects a highly visible marquee for the college to passing traffic. To the massing ‘interior,’ the unifying building envelope of masonry with metal and glass insets lifts to form a contemporary loggia surrounding three sides of a courtyard and anchoring the west end of a future quad. At each end of this loggia the building envelope lifts further to announce primary and secondary entrances. A heroic 'Y'-shaped concrete column marks entry to the public space.

An early action of the design process was to reconsider various aspects of the 95 acre campus masterplan executed by another firm and given to the design team as a point of departure. As a result, a more compact, high quality and sustainable campus plan was realized by bringing future buildings closer together, replacing much of the surface parking with structured and repositioning the service access points to create a more pedestrian-friendly landscape. Most of the program (library, student center, dining, science labs) of this first campus building is considered temporary and will eventually migrate to future campus buildings, although the building itself is permanent and will continue to anchor the future campus quadrangle.