Durham Tech News: Orange Campus will open Friday

HILLSBOROUGH -- The drive to Durham Tech just got shorter.

The flagship building for the orange County campus of Durham Technical Community College, a dazzling new 40,000-square-foot multipurpose facility, will open its doors for continuing education and basic skills courses starting Friday.

From the fully equipped chemistry lab to the "flex" room with a paramedics' bay, the facility is designed to accommodate a wide range of instructional courses.

"It's a great opportunity for us to offer more programs than we've been able to offer," said Dina Logan, director of Durham Tech's orange County centers. "And we want to be able to use this facility to not just host classes, but to really become part of and a partner with the community."

Situated on 20 heavily forested acres between Chapel Hill and Hillsborough within the Waterstone development, a 337-acre residential and commercial site between Interstates 40 and 85 and Old N.C. 86 and N.C. 86, the $8 million-building is the first of four more structures planned for the central orange campus.

The facility -- which was designed to maximize use of natural daylight -- has 22 instructional spaces, including classrooms, computer and science labs, an "e-library," flexible use space, instructional and student support services areas, and faculty and student lounges.

On average, the classrooms seat 30 to 40 students and one room seats up to 60 people.

"If all of our classes are full -- and my math is right -- we could potentially host 1,800 students in a single day," Logan said.

The new building also houses many "green" features, such as aluminum light shelves, photovoltaic systems for solar-assisted water heating, motion-sensor lighting and waterless urinals.

Leading among the green features, however, is the 10,000 gallon rainwater collection and filtration system that will be used to flush toilets.

"We will hopefully save on use of water, which is a limited resource as we all know -- especially around here," Logan said.

"orange County was very vocal in doing environmental efficiency in the building," said Dick McKown, Durham Tech's director of facility services. "I think it's a good feature to have in the building -- it's a good conservation method and I think orange County deserves a pat on the back."

It also has some unexpected benefits, Logan said.

"It's fun and interesting to show, and it allows us the opportunity to talk about green features and the importance of conservation," she said.

The sun-lit, half moon-shaped student lounge -- one of the most distinctive designs in the building -- will give students "a place to relax and talk to fellow classmates," Logan said.

Along the wall of the straight side of the lounge, a rectangular glass window allows passers-by to peek in and scope out the scene before entering, a design that "breaks up the monotony of the white wall," McKown said.

This summer, the orange County campus will offer a wide array of courses, including: Emergency Medical Technology and Paramedic, Law Enforcement Extension, a Spanish Immersion course, computer courses, English as a Second Language, foreign languages and photography.

The campus will start up its curriculum courses this fall and Durham Tech will continue to offer courses in the orange County Skills Development Center, located in downtown Chapel Hill.

The Hillsborough community at large has offered "tons of positive feedback," Logan said.

"We really look forward to continuing our partnership with the schools, our small businesses and the rest of the county," she said. "Community college is a wonderful way for students to transition into a four-year university -- plus it's much more cost efficient."