The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is renovating "The Pit," an iconic central space on campus.
A Daily Tar Heel article in 1969 described the space in front of the UNC Student Stores at 203 South Road as a "mass of dirt, dust and bricks" and, occasionally, mud.
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Architects said stormwater drainage has been a problem in the area from the beginning when "The Pit" was a construction zone for the student union, bookstore and library. Previously, "The Pit" was the site of the university's baseball field.
Students say, when it rains, "The Pit" becomes one big puddle on the bricks.
"It’s this kind of ponding and pooling that at times can last for days," said landscape architect Daniel Widis, who is leading the project.
Photos from the UNC archives show the cleared space that became the Pit after students helped place brick over a construction pit and plant two trees. Fifty-five years later, the towering oaks are now in decline, and the stormwater pipes beneath the bricks have failed.
"The drains that were installed when this project was done have failed," Widis added. "The trees have grown up and crushed those pipes."
Widis said new plans call for a total redesign of the form of the iconic campus space.
"We’ve reached a kind of critical moment in the space," Widis said. "It’s long had issues with drainage and puddling and health and safety issues. The space could be so much more and provide more amenities for the students and the campus."
Currently, the university is planning the long-term legacy of "The Pit" with three concepts.
The area could become sloped, like the incline of a beach, Widis said. A bridge concept would add a walkway across "The Pit" with sunken spaces for people to gather on both sides, and an area called "The Plaza" would flatten out the space with seating under a grove of new trees.
"Getting rid of the pit in the pit would probably be the most provocative one, but in many ways it addresses the issues and challenges this space is facing," Widis said.
The thought of raising "The Pit" is a bit perplexing to UNC freshman Sofia Morais, who said it's already become a destination for new students.
"People use it as like, 'Oh let’s meet at the pit, let’s go here,'" Morais explained. "It’s a location everyone knows on campus. I think I would be okay with a little bit of change. I think it still would be nice to call it 'The Pit' as a memory of what it used to be."
The university plans to work on final designs for "The Pit" in the fall. There is no current timeline to start construction.