North Carolina State University’s Postwar Landscape Architecture is At-Risk According to The Cultural Landscape Foundation

Media Contact: Nord Wennerstrom | T: 202.483.0553  | M: 202.255.7076 | E: nord@tclf.org

New Campus Master Plan could result in alteration and, possibly, demolition of nationally significant landscapes likely eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places

Washington, D.C. (February 13, 2023) – The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) today designated the North Carolina State University’s (N.C. State) postwar landscape architecture legacy as a significant threatened site under its Landslide program. A campus master plan currently under review could lead to the alteration of some contributing sites, including the iconic Brickyard by landscape architect Richard Bell, and the Burlington Nuclear Engineering Lab Area by Raleigh-based landscape architect Geoffrey McLean, an N.C. State graduate (1969). The master plan’s lack of specificity has raised concerns about the future of the campus’ postwar landscape architecture legacy.

The Landslide designation includes a section on what the public can do. TCLF believes the Brickyard and the Burlington Nuclear Engineering Lab Area are likely eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and recommends that N.C. State commission National Register nominations for these sites. TCLF also recommends that N.C. State undertake a thorough survey of its historic landscape resources on campus, as well as the creation of guidelines for landscape architecture in the context of new construction, similar to what was done at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and some 80 other institution because of support from the Getty Campus Initiative.

“Despite decades of public interest in modernism and modernist design, postwar landscape architecture continues to suffer from a lack of awareness, documentation, and appreciation leaving vulnerable places like the Brickyard and the Burlington Nuclear Engineering Lab Area, which we believe are likely eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places,” said Charles A. Birnbaum, TCLF’s President and CEO. “Just last year a portion of the artistically intriguing and unique Lab Area was demolished with little public notice or input.”

Liz Waytkus, Executive Director of Docomomo US, the United States chapter of Docomomo International, a non-profit organization dedicated to the documentation and conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the modern movement, provided the following statement: “Landscape and setting are an integral element of significant Modern design from the 20th century. We see all too often that educational campuses focus too much on the buildings and not enough on the landscape architecture designed at the same time. These landscapes including those at N.C. State are incredibly important to the overall composition and the way we as individuals engage with the environment.”

N.C. State, located approximately twelve miles west of downtown Raleigh, was founded in 1887 pursuant to the Morrill Act of 1862, which made federal land available for the purposes of establishing higher education facilities for the teaching of agriculture, mechanical arts, and military science. Originally serving fewer than 100 students in a single building, the institution has since grown to 2,100 acres encompassing the Central, North, South, and Centennial Campuses.

In 1919 architect Hobart Upjohn and landscape architect Warren Manning developed the first comprehensive master plan for the campus (now North Campus). Construction for Memorial Belltower at the campus’ Hillsborough Street entrance began in the 1920s, with stonework completed in 1937 through Works Progress Administration funding. In 1958 an updated plan called for expansion to a second, south campus, and designated a central pedestrian area, University Plaza, for connectivity between the two spaces.

The Brickyard (officially called University Plaza) was created as part of a 1963 campus expansion with a master plan by Richard C. Bell and Bell Design Group. That master plan called for the creation of a new modernist landscape at the heart of the University’s growing campus, which eventually became known as the Brickyard. This modernist piazza has brick paving inspired by the Piazza San Marco in Italy and is among the most significant landscapes on a university campus from the modernist period. Bell is a recipient of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Medal, the professional association’s highest award.

The Brickyard is one N.C. State’s nine “Hallowed Places” defined by the university as “irreplaceable campus buildings, landscapes and natural settings that have accrued special meaning over time.” Officially known as University Plaza, the 45,240-square-foot site, comprised of some half million red and white bricks (hence its nickname) in a distinctive geometric pattern, can “hold roughly half of the university’s student population at one time.” The Brickyard is featured in TCLF’s digital What’s Out There Cultural Landscapes Guide to Raleigh-Durham and the cover of the What's Out There Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Guidebook. The site is so popular that “upward of 500 of the plaza’s … bricks are swiped as souvenirs annually.”

The adjacent Burlington Nuclear Engineering Lab housed the first nuclear research reactor designed, built, and operated by an academic institution in the United States. When the building by architect George Milton was completed in 1953, it was described by the Associated Press’s science editor as “The First Temple of the Atom.” The McLean-designed landscape was completed in 1972 and wraps around three sides of lab.  McLean designed a sculptural landscape that drew on Modernist ideas while foreshadowing later Postmodern motifs with whimsically elevated everyday objects. The landscape’s paving, planters, steps, and sculptures are made of the red brick found throughout much of the university’s campus.

McLean used brick to construct an angular sculptural landscape for sitting and gathering, embellished with planters that play with perspective, zig-zagging and tilting in and out to create ziggurats and inverted ziggurats. Utilitarian elements like manhole covers and grates are accentuated, rather than hidden, by multifunctional sculptures of brick that take the shape of abstracted human forms. One that resembles an anthropomorphic chimney appears to walk over a grate and is the focus of a seating area with floating wood benches. However, in 2022 one of the site’s sculptural compositions, which incorporated a water meter, was demolished. The sculpture was determined by the school’s facilities department to be a safety threat based on some cracked and chipped bricks.

“It’s perplexing that N.C. State will replace more than 500 bricks annually stolen from the Brickyard, but the diminished condition of a handful of bricks at the Lab Area resulted in partial demolition,” said TCLF’s Birnbaum. “A comprehensive inventory of the campus’ landscape architecture and shared stewardship visions and values, plus more transparency in the public review process at this publicly funded institution, would greatly benefit this extraordinary landscape legacy.”

About Landslide

The goal of Landslide, one of TCLF’s four core programs, is to draw immediate and lasting attention to threatened landscapes and unique features.  Through web-based news stories, traveling exhibitions, and print publications, Landslide reveals the value of these often-forgotten landscapes.

About The Cultural Landscape Foundation

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1998 to connect people to places. TCLF educates and engages the public to make our shared landscape heritage more visible, identify its value, and empower its stewards. Through its website, publishing, lectures, and other events, TCLF broadens support and understanding for cultural landscapes.  TCLF is also home to the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize.

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