Consistently ranked as one of the most beautiful campuses in the world, UNC’s 729-acre campus has a long history and tradition of aesthetic excellence.
Staff writer Anish Bhatia spoke with urban design professor Andrew Whittemore to hear his thoughts on why UNC’s campus reigns so architecturally dominant.
The Daily Tar Heel: What about UNC’s campus is so appealing?
Andrew Whittemore: In my opinion, we have some excellent campus arborists, including one I know who came here from Princeton. He’s very passionate about the trees on campus, which I think contributes a lot to the quality of the public spaces here. It’s not an easy task, given that there are maybe 40,000 people every day crossing campus because it actually puts a lot of pressure on the trees.
DTH: What are the best parts of UNC’s campus, architecturally speaking?
AW: Definitely North Campus. But the buildings around Polk Place and McCorkle Place, certainly. Even if I had to be more specific, I would say the area between Franklin and Cameron streets, the Arboretum here.
DTH: Concerning its design, what can be done better on UNC’s campus? How would you improve or redesign it if you could?
AW: I think the Pit is successful but could be more successful if the adjacent buildings opened out to it more like Student Stores. It seems with the hospitals and everything near South Campus, a lot has to be given toward infrastructure that can accommodate emergency vehicles.
I think the appearance of some parts of North Campus could be improved, especially around the part of campus that bleeds into the back of town on Franklin Street. It’s kind of a mix of parking lots and some pretty nice public spaces that I would say are underused because either people don’t know they’re there or people just meander through those paths ...
