Building Duke is a three-year initiative to explore the conception, design and construction of the Duke University campus as well as its changes and expansions. The initiative will culminate in a relational database of textual and visual archival material on the architectural history of Duke campus; an interactive digital 3D model of campus developments since the 1920s; a series of multimedia thematic narratives on history of the campus; and a series of augmented reality tours.

In its first year, the 2018-19 team focused on the identification, collection, organization and digitization of textual and visual material from the University Archives. This data populated a relational database that will serve as the core of the project and support the next two years of data analysis and output.

The team also created multiple digital projects showcasing the history of Duke’s architecture, including StoryMaps of Duke administrators’ efforts to find the perfect architectural structure for Duke’s campus and the history of Duke Hospital. The team also created a 3D model of the original blueprints for The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Ackland Art Museum, which was originally intended to be built at Duke.

Timing

Fall 2018 – Spring 2019

Team Outputs

Building Duke (poster presented at Bass Connections Showcase, Duke University, April 17, 2019)

Project team website

Building Duke: Campus Visits Across the U.S. (StoryMap by Selena Qian)

History of the Duke Medical Center (StoryMap by Abby Shlesinger)

Ackland Museum Model Duke Blueprints (3D Model by Aaron Young and Juan Lasso)

This Team in the News

Young Trustee Finalists Introduce Themselves to Undergraduates in Thursday Town Hall

A Contingent Campus Tour: The Dukes That Never Were

These Ph.D. Graduates Incorporated Bass Connections into Their Doctoral Education

Visiting Vienna-based Artists Discuss Campus Architecture and Sculpture and Video Work

Meet the 2019 Graduate Young Trustee Candidates

Committee Selected to Review Department of History Proposal to Rename Carr Building

President's Message on Duke Chapel Space

Building Duke Becomes Bass Connections Project Team

See related team, Building Duke: The Architectural History of Duke Campus from 1924 to the Present (2019-2020).

Image: “Duke University Commencement, 1931,” University Archives Photograph Collection, Box 50, Duke University Archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University