The Future of the Hill Library: Comprehensive Study

A tall brick building with a large glassy entryway on the Brickyard

View of the new grade-level Brickyard entrance, with the new Concourse element running north towards the West Wing. The expanded Brickyard Reading Room is visible to the right of the new entrance. This rendering also shows new, larger windows in the south tower and recladding the north tower to provide more natural light into those floors.

Open, wood-paneled entryway with lots of light leading to the Ask Us desk and a Café filled with busy people

View of the new Concourse from the Ask Us lobby area, looking north towards the new Gallery Reading Room. New windows in the second floor of the West Wing and the north stack tower are shown. An expanded Café is visible on the first floor of the West Wing.

An open makerspace table, VR room, VR workshop, and Gaming room

View of the renovated ground floor of the East Wing and the new connecting stair up to the first floor Learning Commons. The ground floor spaces would be focused on experiential learning.

An airy study space with organic furniture forms surrounds an outdoor courtyard with flowering trees

View of the second floor of the renovated East Wing, showing the infill addition that includes a new outdoor courtyard. A new connection to the north stack tower is shown in the distance.

Exterior view of a building made of brick, steel, and glass, with a makerspace visible inside. Busy people fly drones and sit at café tables.

View of the proposed new addition to the south side of the East Wing, showing the double-height Makerspace and dedicated outdoor area. A decorative fence or wall, not shown, would demarcate the south boundary of the outdoor area. Learning Labs would occupy the upper levels of the addition.

Exterior view of a building made of brick and glass, with modern sculpture outside and colorful walls inside

View from Hillsborough Street of the new Gallery Reading Room, which is located above the expanded loading dock area. The Cox Color Wall is shown relocated from the north stack tower to the new reading room. The renovated West Wing is shown with re-opened balconies on the second floor, and the original double-height entrance vestibule. This rendering also shows recladding the north tower to provide more natural light into those floors.

In 2022–23, as the university was developing its Physical Master Plan, the D. H. Hill Jr. Library Comprehensive Study was led by architectural firm Perkins & Will to "set in place a road map for physical space strategies to support the continued delivery of exemplary library services." 

This study makes recommendations based on three distinct factors driving change:

  • the changing role of libraries;
  • increasing enrollment; and
  • existing conditions that limit the library’s ability to deliver services and experiences.

Read the Study

Hill Comprehensive Study, NC State University, December 14, 2023. Perkins & Will

Read about the study's process, vision, and budget projection for the future of the Hill Library.

View the PDF (136 pages, 60MB)

Appendices: Vol. II and Vol. III

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Comprehensive Study Committee Members

The following Vision Statement was developed in consultation with university stakeholders and helped to guide the work of the study.

The future D. H. Hill Jr. Library will be a welcoming place to connect individual learners and the academic community, the campus, and the world.

A journey through the library will reveal accessible resources for experiential learning, data-informed scholarship, personal well-being, and the services supporting academic success and civic readiness.

The Library will be the preferred center for interdisciplinary collaboration. It will inspire creative thinking. It will nurture a culture of experimentation. It will be a human-centered pathway between knowledge acquisition and its application in the service of society. 

The place to Think & Do.

(Vol. I, page 16)