Graduating and joining the alumni means the end of all-night study sessions, GPA scares and the dreaded end-of-term papers — as well as access to one of the newest alumni centers in the country.
Luckily, students don’t have to wait four years (or five or six) to enjoy what the Dorothy and Roy Park Center, a state-of-the-art alumni home available to host dinners, meetings, reunions, conferences and weddings, has to offer. Current students are invited to utilize the center’s meeting spaces, open only since Dec. 8, 2006.
“First and foremost, the Park Alumni Center is something of which we all can be proud. It’s the finest alumni center in the country,” Brooklyn Winters, director of Special Interest and Campus Programs, said. “It offers a place where students can come to interact with alumni at special events and where student organizations can hold their own very special events.”
Nestled on the edge of Lake Raleigh, the alumni center’s architecture stands out from the high-tech buildings that compose most of Centennial Campus. The 59,000 square foot building plans to be the center for future Centennial Campus projects such as a golf course, hotel and new chancellor’s residence.
“You’ll notice that the architecture echoes Holladay Hall and the Alumni Association’s old home in Winslow Hall,” Matt Johnson, director of Grassroots Campaign, said. “We did that intentionally to pull some of the historic main campus over here.”
It does have a few things, however, that aren’t found anywhere else on campus, such as double curving staircases, a grand reception room lit by two crystal chandeliers and intricately designed Italian marble flooring.
“We looked at alumni centers around the country, including Chapel Hill, Texas A&M, Maryland and Ohio State,” Johnson said. “We took ideas from each school, such as Texas A&M’s marble flooring, and went even further.”
The entire $24 million budget for the building was raised from about 1,500 private donors, and no student fees or University money was used. In addition to the 145,000 alumni, researchers on Centennial Campus also use the facility’s space for meetings and entertaining clients and guests, Winters said.
Cody Williams, a marketing intern with the Alumni Association and a student alumni ambassador, said he reaps the building’s benefits as a staff member and student.
“From a staff perspective, there is a lot more space to operate in and work with,” Williams said. “As a student, I like that the building has the capabilities to host many more functions then the previous space the office occupied in the new Winslow building. It is also nice to have a place that alumni can come back to for functions and during the day for meetings and tours.”
The State Club, the private dining facility that has its own restaurant in the center and caters events held there, is also open to students. Its chef is a former head chef at the Waldorf Hotel in New York City.
“It provides wonderful social and networking opportunities with not only alumni, but distinguished business and community leaders,” Winters said.
