Over the next year of renovations, Avery is closed to students. The project includes the addition of an elevator tower with a lounge on each level, 23 accessible bedrooms and bathrooms with roll-in showers, and outdoor gathering space with accessible walkways along the front and back of the building.
Other work will include all new windows, roof repairs, new plumbing, landscaping, HVAC improvements and structural and architectural finish upgrades.
Located at the end of Stadium Drive, Avery opened in the fall of 1958, at the same time as neighboring residence halls Parker and Teague. Avery, which is five stories, was last renovated in 2013. The project budget is $32.35 million. The project is funded by housing receipts.
Improves accessibility
Avery will be the first older UNC-Chapel Hill residence hall to gain an elevator in years. It’s also the first University project toward a long-term strategy of vastly improving accessibility in Carolina’s older residence halls, enabling students to choose accessible housing options across campus, said Phil Young, ResNET director.
Renovations to the existing part of Avery are expected to be completed by July 2025. If need be, the last bit of construction of the addition could extend into the 2025 Fall semester.
ITS on board
Every UNC-Chapel Hill construction and renovation project, of course, requires information technology, which means ITS gets involved. Telecommunications — all that equipment for wireless and wired devices, audio-video systems, two-way communication in elevators, and the like — is part of planning and design from the earliest concept stages of any project.
For the Avery renovation, that means that ITS staffers have been engaged since January 2023 — a year and a half before site work began. They’ve pored through designs and budgets, offered expertise, feedback and revisions, and attended lots of meetings. Now in 2024, multiple ITS teams are participating — Infrastructure Engineering, Wireless Engineering, ResNET, Network Deployment, Transport Operations and the ITS Warehouse.
In addition to working closely with project architects and engineering firms to keep a constant eye on industry standards and detailed University and state requirements, the ITS team has helped reconcile budgets for the IT part of the project, represented campus networking needs, and analyzed electrical, plumbing and other building systems that could impact IT system operation.
ITS employees have designed network plans, added fiber optic cables and temporarily removed other telecom cables that could be damaged by or in the way of construction, which is a common concern in renovation projects with existing networks. As you can imagine, tech equipment doesn’t fare well amid all that construction dust and debris, so all sorts of IT equipment had to be removed from Avery and stored — cables, networking gear, wireless access points, digital signage and lounge TVs.
Site specifics
As we know from our own devices, networking is more than just plugging something into the wall. We live in the era of the Internet of Things and smart building technologies. When a facility is being designed and budgeted — whether new construction or a renovation — the ITS Engineering team members must ascertain if the network will be able to reach every inch of the building. Generally speaking, for Category 6 network cabling, there is a 100-meter cable distance limitation, said Frank Hall with the Infrastructure Engineering group, so the design of network infrastructure must be planned around that constraint.
Each new lounge in Avery will need wireless access points as will the outdoor gathering spaces. Carolina Housing’s office in Avery will gain improved networking and wireless. Avery’s first-ever elevator, as we mentioned, will need technology for two-way communication. Instead of the current configuration of network equipment on just two floors, the renovated building will have telecom rooms on every floor, as today’s standards call for, reducing networking distances and enabling more efficient network administration — a marked improvement in keeping with the modern campus model.
Problem-solving a key skill
ITS staffers participating in the project must think through a multitude of components — down to ensuring that data ports in the accessible bedrooms are at normal outlet height on the wall instead of higher up and out of reach, said Dan Pellegrino, who works with Hall. Along with Chuck Reese, they form the Infrastructure Engineering team. The team members represent ITS on all construction projects around campus. But, as mentioned earlier, many other ITS staffers get involved.
The ITS team members must also think beyond what’s drawn on paper or a whiteboard. For example, the Wi-Fi signal must be able to penetrate walls and other structures. ITS’ Wireless Engineering group has sophisticated software to model how signals will respond to building conditions and apply team members’ design expertise accordingly.
Sometimes the physical realities of a building are different than expected. Sure, Avery has a duct raceway box along a hallway ceiling to corral the slew of existing cables — building components that could not have been anticipated when Avery was built in the 1950s. But for the Avery expansion and renovation, ITS needs to add some new cabling, requiring space that the duct raceway doesn’t have. So, ITS figured out the cables that are no longer needed and can be pulled out to make room.
Creating Avery’s new, stacked telecom room configuration also provides an opportunity to upgrade the telecommunications grounding system, which will help optimize network stability.
The entire lower floor of Avery will be revamped into modern administrative space per the latest UNC standards.
Home away from home
This is the first UNC residence hall project that will incorporate outdoor access points to enable strong connections to the University’s wireless network while socializing outside. Picture residents gathering in beautifully designed spaces behind Avery to watch a movie on a projector screen, said Young of ResNET. At their family home, many students have backyards designed with entertaining in mind — grills, lounge furniture and outdoor lighting. When they come to their college dorm, they expect similar outdoor amenities, including good wireless access.
Thanks to the efforts of ITS, Carolina Housing Facilities, Housing Support and other UNC project personnel, old, familiar, mid-century Avery Hall is getting a boost into the 21st century.
While covering ITS’ work on the renovation project, Johnson was inspired to share how living on campus, and specifically in Avery Residence Hall, changed her life.
“Down the road, someone from your dorm might offer you a job, become the love of your life, mentor and encourage you, or remain a dear friend throughout your life. I know this and my UNC friends know this because we have lived it these past 40 years.”
“Decades later, my Avery friends remain among my closest friends.” Read the full post at the Carolina Housing Blog.