Known fondly since 1948 as “Old Red,” Hudson Hall has long stood as a cornerstone of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. The building is home to three of the school’s departments and two annexes filled with offices and classrooms. But after serving generations of students and professors, the building will undergo renovations due to its decades of wear and rising maintenance costs.
The roughly $300 million project to transform Hudson Hall into a “21st century research facility” is set to begin in spring 2027 and conclude around fall 2030. During the three-year renovation period, students, faculty, labs and classrooms will be relocated to other locations on or near Duke’s campus.
Hudson Hall’s modernization is catered toward Pratt’s new collaborative and experiential learning model. The building’s footprint will grow from 128,000 to 190,000 square feet, with the expansion set to increase educational space by 50% and quadruple student social space. Hudson Hall’s classroom design will shift to accommodate “flexible classrooms” that foster group learning as opposed to solely lecturing. The building will also see new shops and maker spaces to support design classes and co-curricular programs…