“Wouldn’t it be great if there was a street entrance to the library?” Students have been asking this question for years.

Well...soon there will be! Construction is expected to begin the week of January 28 to re-open the Hillsborough Street entrance to the D. H. Hill Jr. Library. The project—which includes new doors, a secure entrance, and landscaping—is scheduled to be completed by the end of the spring 2019 semester.

The re-opening of this entrance precedes a large-scale renovation to the library to begin after graduation in May 2019, adding a new Academic Success Center and several new library spaces on the second and third floors of the bookstacks towers, during which the library entrance on the Brickyard will be closed. The Hillsborough Street entrance will be the only entrance to the Hill Library during the renovation, which is scheduled for completion just before the beginning of the fall 2020 semester. The library website’s renovation page describes the plan in more detail.

While every effort will be made to minimize disruption for library users, the Hillsborough Street entrance construction will bring some noise and will affect several spaces in the library’s West Wing. A construction wall will be built to contain the work area, requiring the closure of the ConeZone seating area, the yellow alcoves, the entrance vestibule, the Ball chair area and adjacent elevator, and the current Interfaith Prayer & Meditation Space.

The Interfaith Prayer & Meditation Space will be relocated to Room 2108 in the East Wing, and temporary changes will be made to some spaces in the Faculty Research Commons on the second floor of the West Wing near the elevator.

The Creamery will remain open, and the Fishbowl Forum and Quiet Reading Rooms will remain accessible during construction (though likely with some ambient noise). The West Wing elevator near the Fishbowl Forum, which has had card-restricted access, may be used by anyone to access the second floor of that wing during the project. This is the only handicapped-accessible route to the Auditorium on that floor.