NC State’s campus is composed of 2,090 acres; that’s 3.27 square miles. With just under 34,000 students, NC State is the largest university in North Carolina. With that much space and students, it’s guaranteed you’ll find an abundance of cool places and awesome amenities to work with. Throughout campus, there are a number of hidden spots and beautiful places out in the open to relax or enjoy.
My personal favorite is the grassy square with the swinging chairs between the Free Expression Tunnel and Dabney Hall. It’s really peaceful to swing on those chairs especially at night when not a lot of people are around. It’s a nice place to sit and just make a phone call or send some texts. One time I saw a huge spider there in the grass, but I would still return. It’s an easy place to spot from the sidewalk, but it still seems like a hidden gem to me because it’s so peaceful.
There’s also a little grassy area outside of Tucker and Owen Residence Halls that have swings right next to the Tri-Towers. They have solar umbrellas that you can charge your phone with, so it’s a pretty cool and convenient place as well.
Near D.H. Hill library, there’s the wolf ears, two listening chamber type-things, where you can talk into one on one side of the stretch of grass and the person in the other one can hear what you said. It’s a little bit childish, but a fun little thing to have on campus for sure.
One night my roommate asked me to go watch a movie with her in Witherspoon Student Center. I was expecting just a medium sized room and a few dozen chairs. I was wrong. There is a whole movie theater in Witherspoon that seats 460 people. The Union Activities Board here at State organizes showings of movies for free and gives out free popcorn. That’s a wonderful amenity I would have never even thought a university would have.
We literally have a museum on campus. the Gregg Museum of Art and Design is a free museum open to the public and NC State community that contains more than 35,000 objects. It’s been closed since 2013 due to its relocation to Hillsborough Street, but it just reopened in August. It’s a wonderful thing to have on campus because it gives the community an easily accessible outlet to view art and get involved with the arts with lectures and exhibitions.
Outside of the Free Expression Tunnel near Wolf Plaza, there’s almost always a handful of kids skating and doing tricks on their skateboards. I live in Carroll Hall, so I always hear the click of the boards on the bricks. I love it. Sometimes I like to go out and sit on the benches near the wolf statues and watch them. It’s a cool part of what goes on around campus, and it’s right in the middle of central campus, so it adds a lot of life to the area.
I can’t forget about one of the most popular parts of campus — the Court of North Carolina — even though it’s not really an underrated spot. It looks really beautiful especially in the morning when walking out of the 1911 Building toward the Belltower. There’s a lot of cool places and amenities on campus that either everyone knows about or that are overlooked that I really appreciate having here.
