{"id":28301,"date":"2025-05-06T08:59:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T12:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/landscape-architecture\/2025\/05\/06\/wood-hall-courtyard-provides-new-outdoor-wellness-space-for-students\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T03:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T07:54:19","slug":"wood-hall-courtyard-provides-new-outdoor-wellness-space-for-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/landscape-architecture\/2025\/05\/06\/wood-hall-courtyard-provides-new-outdoor-wellness-space-for-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Wood Hall Courtyard Provides New Outdoor Wellness Space for Students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

For years to come, current and future NC State students who call Wood Residence Hall home will have a versatile outdoor space in which to relax, study or gather with friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This outdoor courtyard space, which was recently dedicated as its third phase wrapped up this semester, is part of a three-year project that is part of University Housing\u2019s long-running partnership with the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning\u2019s Master of Landscape Architecture Design + Build Studio course. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I think is really special about this studio is when you see the finished product, we\u2019re able to talk about it with students that live in the community but also our staff too, this is a student-run, student-led project,\u201d said Connor Brady, Wood Hall\u2019s Residence Life coordinator. \u201cWe\u2019re able to really connect the dots for a lot of students about the opportunities at NC State.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brady noted that the partnership between the Landscape Architecture course and Housing is in its 15th year, and pointed to numerous other examples on campus of the benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wood Hall courtyard will feature three spaces: an outdoor study lounge with tables featuring electrical outlets, a communal gathering space with movable tables, chairs and a grill, and an outdoor wellness garden featuring native plant species, adirondack chairs, a gabion bench and boulders for ample seating options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor years, we\u2019ve gotten feedback from students that they wish Wood Hall had more usable outdoor space,\u201d Brady said. \u201cWhat I hope for Wood Hall residents is that they take advantage of these outdoor spaces to really appreciate the community they live in and the serenity of Wood Hall. It\u2019s a very serene place for our students to live. They appreciate the serenity of these spaces and what they can create, while also building community among our students and our teams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
Students relax in the Wood Hall courtyard’s Adirondack chairs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hands-On Experience for Students<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A trip to the Wood Hall courtyard shortly before its dedication found a large group of students transporting rocks and bags of soil, planting and watering in preparation for the space\u2019s completion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unique nature of the partnership between University Housing and the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning is that it allows students studying the design field to get real, tangible experience in a way that benefits future generations of students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been really nice,\u201d said Cole Wesson, a fourth-year student studying architecture. \u201cI wanted to take a deep dive into landscape architecture this semester, and just see what it\u2019s about. Being out here and getting hands-on experience has really helped a lot in just learning everything there is to know about landscape architecture.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The course, co-taught by Carla Delcambre, an associate professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and the Director of the Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture, and Jesse Turner, assistant professor of practice in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, allows students to go through every step of the design and construction process for these types of spaces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This process includes holding workshops and discussions with the students living in the residence halls about what they hope to see in the spaces, working alongside Housing stakeholders and gaining an understanding of the campus planning and design process for these projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Carla
Carla Delcambre speaks about the new Wood Hall courtyard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t do this studio without the support of University Housing,\u201d Delcambre said. \u201cI\u2019ve presented work that the students have done at conferences all over the country, and there is no other university that has a sustainable model like the one we have here. A lot of design-build programs create small, outdoor spaces. It\u2019s not necessarily a usable space that students can actually sit in and work in, use their laptops and socialize in. They\u2019re not doing that kind of design-build. They\u2019re fabricating site furnishings, but they\u2019re not considering nature-based solutions that increase biodiversity on campus. We\u2019ve created an outdoor learning laboratory. \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brady said that the partnership and project affirms University Housing\u2019s commitment to student learning, and the spaces built and designed by NC State students for NC State students give an ability to specifically tailor them to the community\u2019s needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just such a commitment to all things NC State,\u201d Brady said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I think is so special about it. It\u2019s an opportunity for applied, hands-on experiences. We get to talk to the residents and point out that these are graduate students who truly get hands-on experiences as if they\u2019re in a landscape architecture firm this semester where they dream it up, we give feedback as the stakeholder clients, they\u2019re getting the guidance from their professors, we have the budget that we stay on and they learn all of those skills. What\u2019s cool about the partnership is we get to give feedback based on real, day-to-day experiences, and then they make it happen. They think it and then they do it. I think that\u2019s such a cool connection. They get to walk away and say \u2018I had a hand in this project.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turner said that he hopes students in the class will have their minds, bodies and souls fed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that landscape architects are fortunate to walk through the product designed from their imagination after it\u2019s finished, and see the benefits their work will have on their communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students in this course who have contributed to the project will have a physical reminder of their work for years to come, as the outdoor wellness space continues to benefit future generations of students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn our class, it\u2019s a shared dream that we create,\u201d Turner said. \u201cThat dream is shared by as many people as we can bring into it. We have our campus team, we have the residents, we have myself and Carla, and we all get together and have a ball imagining and dreaming what a space can be. We combine all of those dreams and imaginations together, and then we literally get to walk through it one day. We get to touch and create this legacy that we get to experience by building it, walking through it and sharing it with the people we built it with. To me, that\u2019s the most powerful thing about what we do and what it means to be a landscape architect. You\u2019re literally creating physical reality from imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Commitment to Sustainability<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

These projects also come with a commitment to NC State\u2019s sustainability goals. For example, the Wood Hall courtyard will feature native plant species, as well as pollinator-attracting plants, and a design that uses recycled bricks and leftover materials from other projects, lowering the carbon footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also contains design elements that allow for the proper treatment of stormwater. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of our treatment of water is that it must flow through a garden that we create before it leaves our site,\u201d Turner said. \u201cThose gardens are intended to improve the water quality and also use that water for the plants. We\u2019re introducing green infrastructure retrofits to existing storm drain utilities on site to make sure the water passes through a garden before it passes through a pipe where possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Including the wellness garden \u2013 an area where students can relax and find a quiet moment to unwind and recharge \u2013 also adds to the sustainability component, one that all involved with the project hope remains for years to come. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to make outdoor living spaces that are useful and that are going to be long lasting,\u201d Turner said. \u201cFrom a sustainability perspective, a good design means that it will remain.\u201d<\/p>\n

This post was originally published<\/a> in DASA.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n

For years to come, current and future NC State students who call Wood Residence Hall home will have a versatile outdoor space in which to relax, study or gather with friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This outdoor courtyard space, which was recently dedicated as its third phase wrapped up this semester, is part of a three-year project that is part of University Housing\u2019s long-running partnership with the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning\u2019s Master of Landscape Architecture Design + Build Studio course. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I think is really special about this studio is when you see the finished product, we\u2019re able to talk about it with students that live in the community but also our staff too, this is a student-run, student-led project,\u201d said Connor Brady, Wood Hall\u2019s Residence Life coordinator. \u201cWe\u2019re able to really connect the dots for a lot of students about the opportunities at NC State.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brady noted that the partnership between the Landscape Architecture course and Housing is in its 15th year, and pointed to numerous other examples on campus of the benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wood Hall courtyard will feature three spaces: an outdoor study lounge with tables featuring electrical outlets, a communal gathering space with movable tables, chairs and a grill, and an outdoor wellness garden featuring native plant species, adirondack chairs, a gabion bench and boulders for ample seating options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor years, we\u2019ve gotten feedback from students that they wish Wood Hall had more usable outdoor space,\u201d Brady said. \u201cWhat I hope for Wood Hall residents is that they take advantage of these outdoor spaces to really appreciate the community they live in and the serenity of Wood Hall. It\u2019s a very serene place for our students to live. They appreciate the serenity of these spaces and what they can create, while also building community among our students and our teams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
Students relax in the Wood Hall courtyard's Adirondack chairs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hands-On Experience for Students<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A trip to the Wood Hall courtyard shortly before its dedication found a large group of students transporting rocks and bags of soil, planting and watering in preparation for the space\u2019s completion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unique nature of the partnership between University Housing and the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning is that it allows students studying the design field to get real, tangible experience in a way that benefits future generations of students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been really nice,\u201d said Cole Wesson, a fourth-year student studying architecture. \u201cI wanted to take a deep dive into landscape architecture this semester, and just see what it\u2019s about. Being out here and getting hands-on experience has really helped a lot in just learning everything there is to know about landscape architecture.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The course, co-taught by Carla Delcambre, an associate professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and the Director of the Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture, and Jesse Turner, assistant professor of practice in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, allows students to go through every step of the design and construction process for these types of spaces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This process includes holding workshops and discussions with the students living in the residence halls about what they hope to see in the spaces, working alongside Housing stakeholders and gaining an understanding of the campus planning and design process for these projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Carla
Carla Delcambre speaks about the new Wood Hall courtyard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t do this studio without the support of University Housing,\u201d Delcambre said. \u201cI\u2019ve presented work that the students have done at conferences all over the country, and there is no other university that has a sustainable model like the one we have here. A lot of design-build programs create small, outdoor spaces. It\u2019s not necessarily a usable space that students can actually sit in and work in, use their laptops and socialize in. They\u2019re not doing that kind of design-build. They\u2019re fabricating site furnishings, but they\u2019re not considering nature-based solutions that increase biodiversity on campus. We\u2019ve created an outdoor learning laboratory. \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brady said that the partnership and project affirms University Housing\u2019s commitment to student learning, and the spaces built and designed by NC State students for NC State students give an ability to specifically tailor them to the community\u2019s needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just such a commitment to all things NC State,\u201d Brady said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I think is so special about it. It\u2019s an opportunity for applied, hands-on experiences. We get to talk to the residents and point out that these are graduate students who truly get hands-on experiences as if they\u2019re in a landscape architecture firm this semester where they dream it up, we give feedback as the stakeholder clients, they\u2019re getting the guidance from their professors, we have the budget that we stay on and they learn all of those skills. What\u2019s cool about the partnership is we get to give feedback based on real, day-to-day experiences, and then they make it happen. They think it and then they do it. I think that\u2019s such a cool connection. They get to walk away and say \u2018I had a hand in this project.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turner said that he hopes students in the class will have their minds, bodies and souls fed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that landscape architects are fortunate to walk through the product designed from their imagination after it\u2019s finished, and see the benefits their work will have on their communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students in this course who have contributed to the project will have a physical reminder of their work for years to come, as the outdoor wellness space continues to benefit future generations of students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn our class, it\u2019s a shared dream that we create,\u201d Turner said. \u201cThat dream is shared by as many people as we can bring into it. We have our campus team, we have the residents, we have myself and Carla, and we all get together and have a ball imagining and dreaming what a space can be. We combine all of those dreams and imaginations together, and then we literally get to walk through it one day. We get to touch and create this legacy that we get to experience by building it, walking through it and sharing it with the people we built it with. To me, that\u2019s the most powerful thing about what we do and what it means to be a landscape architect. You\u2019re literally creating physical reality from imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Commitment to Sustainability<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

These projects also come with a commitment to NC State\u2019s sustainability goals. For example, the Wood Hall courtyard will feature native plant species, as well as pollinator-attracting plants, and a design that uses recycled bricks and leftover materials from other projects, lowering the carbon footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also contains design elements that allow for the proper treatment of stormwater. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of our treatment of water is that it must flow through a garden that we create before it leaves our site,\u201d Turner said. \u201cThose gardens are intended to improve the water quality and also use that water for the plants. We\u2019re introducing green infrastructure retrofits to existing storm drain utilities on site to make sure the water passes through a garden before it passes through a pipe where possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Including the wellness garden \u2013 an area where students can relax and find a quiet moment to unwind and recharge \u2013 also adds to the sustainability component, one that all involved with the project hope remains for years to come. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to make outdoor living spaces that are useful and that are going to be long lasting,\u201d Turner said. \u201cFrom a sustainability perspective, a good design means that it will remain.\u201d<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years to come, current and future NC State students who call Wood Residence Hall home will have a versatile outdoor space in which to relax, study or gather with friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":28302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"ncstate_wire","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-28301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-_from-newswire-collection-280"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/landscape-architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/landscape-architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/landscape-architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/landscape-architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/landscape-architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28301"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/landscape-architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28947,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/landscape-architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28301\/revisions\/28947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/landscape-architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/landscape-architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/landscape-architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/landscape-architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}