New Institute to Be Dedicated Saturday

Hyde Hall, named for longtime institute supporters and UNC alumni Pitt and Barbara Hyde, is located on McCorkle Place and will replace the 1,100-square-foot West House as the home for the institute's fellows programs.

Mary Flanagan, director of development for the institute, said the proposal for the new building came somewhat unexpectedly. "Originally, we talked about adding on to West House," she said. "That idea went to a review board, and they came back and offered the opportunity for a new building."

The chief design of the institute is to provide top faculty members with an opportunity to shed their teaching and advising obligations and pursue an area of interest, said Del Helton, director of communications and donor relations for the institute.

"The purpose (of the institute) is to help us retain the best faculty, recruit the best faculty and refresh our best faculty," Flanagan said.

The institute's officials believe that expanding existing programs, as well as introducing new ones, will help accomplish that goal. Flanagan said more than 200 fellowships have been awarded since the institute's 1987 inception.

In addition to its Faculty Fellows Program and Public Fellows Program -- which allows a community member with a personal artistic project to be paired with a faculty member -- the institute is implementing new programs coinciding with the completion of the building, said Fellow John McGowan, associate director for the institute.

New programs will include the Ethics Program, which will bring together members of the professional schools, and the Leadership Program, which will focus on campus leadership, Helton said.

Officials hope the building itself will offer a design complementary to the formation and communication of new ideas.

The first floor of the building features the Fellows Room, an octagonally shaped room with large windows on all sides and a long central table, allowing opportunities for both sunlight and discussion to flourish. In this room, UNC faculty will work together on research and creative projects and also toward the improvement of their teaching.

The University Room, the building's largest, is furnished with elegant chairs and tables and features film projection and videoconferencing capabilities, as well as a speaker's podium with a laptop connection.

The room also will house a piano and host special lectures, film receptions, dinners and other kinds of intimate gatherings, Flanagan said.

Hyde's second floor boasts a state-of-the-art seminar room equipped with the latest innovations in video and teleconferencing communication.

Perhaps the most unique room in the building, though, is the second-floor Incubator.

With its unconventional workstations, the Incubator truly seems to be the facility's prime location for productive thought. A wave of blue sweeps the carpeting and the room itself, and each station has its own tranquil theme. Walls between the individual stations are virtually nonexistent, and each is positioned to allow for the sharing of ideas.

"The idea of the Incubator is to be innovative and to work together in teams," Flanagan said.

The building originally was contracted for completion in March. But changes made to the contract, including changes in flooring and the addition of a ramp connecting Franklin Street to campus, pushed completion to this month, said Dana Leeson, building systems engineer at the Division of Facilities Services.

Bruce Runberg, associate vice chancellor for planning and construction, said the budgeted cost for the building was $8 million, but the total project cost actually amounted to $5.7 million. Private donations from more than 60 alumni and friends of the University made the building a reality.

McGowan, a professor of English and comparative literature, said the institute's programs are invaluable to UNC's faculty. "In the sciences, faculty receive grants to conduct research. In the humanities, sometimes you can get funding to take some time off," he said. "(This institute) offers grants to the best faculty in the humanities and helps to create ties between them."

As for the building itself, McGowan is clearly pleased with the result. "It's wonderful. We've been working for this for a long time."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.