WEDNESDAY - The UNC Board of Trustees reviewed a design for Carolina North's first building, again deciding that the building needed to be bolder before they would approve it.
The response was tepid at best. The trustees looked at one another sideways, none wanting to be the first to give their thoughts on second iteration of the much-touted Innovation Center.
The Board rejected the first facility plan in January amid similar concerns.
"Well I'll walk this plank alone," Trustee Rusty Carter said. "I just can't imagine that we would put this building up on the premiere corner of the property."
The reaction from the other trustees wasn't much more positive. The Innovation Center, the first building to break ground on Carolina North, was meant to be the research campus's crown jewel, a site that would proclaim a striking welcome to the town and could woo corporate partners for other ventures.
The designs unveiled Wednesday at the Board's buildings and grounds committee meeting were, well, too boring for the trustees.
"It's a vanilla building," Carter said, and went on to wonder aloud whether the laboratory nature of the facility was inappropriate for the entrance to the campus.
Anna Wu, the director of facilities planning who was presenting the project, defended the choices that her team made.
"In conversations we've had today about this site, we actually think it's a perfect match," Wu said. "It's a place where researchers from Carolina will come and translate their work into application."
In the absence of two trustees who serve on the buildings and grounds committee, Nelson Schwab and Chairman of the committee Bob Winston, the Board took on the task of evaluating the design as a whole, allowing everyone to speak on the matter.
It was Carter - a member of the University affairs committee, which seldom has much say in the design of buildings - who had the most to contribute. He acted as a lightning rod of dissent against the building's plan, grounding his concerns in future decisions based on the building's precedent.
"Going forward, we will judge each building in the context of what else is there, and right now there's nothing there," he said. "I don't think the design of this building is worthy of this location."
Other Trustees agreed, but few were as firmly against it as Carter. The mood among the trustees was that the plans were generally unimpressive, but functional.
"I think this is a will-do building," said Trustee Phil Clay, who echoed most opinions. "I can't say I'm excited about it."
Ultimately, the Board decided to reject the proposal, saying it would move quickly to work with designers to improve before the trustees' next meeting in September. Chairman of the Board Roger Perry even imposed a deadline for recommendations from the other trustees of 5 p.m. Friday.
But Bruce Runberg, the associate vice chancellor for facilities planning who is working with Wu on the project, said that though he was surprised at their lack of enthusiasm, he was glad the Board was looking at the project critically.
"We want a quality building," Runberg said. "And it's their responsibility to approve that design."
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
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