In 2015, Duke Chapel to begin one-year renovation
Duke Chapel will be closed for about a year between May 2015 and May 2016 while crews reinforce and rehabilitate the ceiling and roof of the building.
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The chapels bells will continue to ring daily at 5 p.m. throughout the construction period.
Duke officials said regularly scheduled weekly worship services would be moved to other locations. Sunday worship services are tentatively set for Baldwin Auditorium during the summer and Page Auditorium in the fall. Christmas and Easter services may be moved to larger locations. Officials also recommended that alumni and other Duke-affiliated families consider planning weddings at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens or the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club.
Work will be done by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., a firm out of Illinois which has worked on both the Washington Monument and the Washington National Cathedral.
There have been few updates to the iconic building since it opened in 1932. Duke University is working through an update to many old buildings, including Perkins Library, West Union and Baldwin Auditorium.
"We're acting now to maintain and preserve the chapel as one of the last great examples of neo-Gothic architecture on a collegiate campus," said Tallman Trask III, Duke's executive vice president.
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