Kim BrattainFounder/ CEO, Kim Brattain Media · Award-winning Corporate and Documentary Film Producer

CREATIVE THINKERS: Bill Nichols & Dr. Pamela Davies | Kim Brattain Media

20 Feb 2014 · 3 min

Watch on YouTube

3:12

The video profiles the James E. and Mary Ann Rogers Science and Health Building at Queen’s University in Charlotte’s historic Myers Park, opened in 2013. Architect Bill Nichols explains how the building’s siting and Georgian‑style design intentionally blend with the campus’s century‑old architecture while achieving modern, environmentally superior LEED certification. Interior design choices such as whiteboard‑painted walls, bulletin boards, and a sequential stone‑letter puzzle encourage spontaneous student‑faculty interaction. The project preserves nine historic campus trees, incorporating their wood into lounge flooring and tables. A distinctive green wall on the south façade forms a DNA‑strand pattern with 13 non‑invasive plant species that changes color each season, and a rooftop greenhouse lets students experiment with plant growth. The initiative was realized in partnership with University President Dr. Pamela Davies, who raised $120 million during a major recession, leveraging her strategic planning and business background to balance academic and commercial priorities. The building is presented as a “crown jewel” that merges historic elegance with innovative, artistic, and sustainable design.

Chapters

Within Charlotte, within historic Myers Park, a crown jewel, Queen's University. New in 2013, the James E. and Mary Ann Rogers Science and Health Building.
I guess most proud of is, from an architectural perspective, is really the siting of the building. This was a very special place. It was right in the front yard of the university, getting into context with the rest of the campus. Of course, we did it in the Georgian-style architecture to blend with the buildings that were built 100 years ago.
The building blends in but leads others of its kind in this century with the environmentally superior LEED certification.
The carters themselves are classrooms. We put whiteboard paint on the walls Bulletin boards on the walls. Students could pin up their posters and they could have impromptu encounters with other students and faculty. Another neat feature on the building, if you go on the outside, there's blocks of stone embedded into the brick with a letter on each stone, and if you read sequentially all the letters together, you can find out what the word puzzle is.
Also outdoors, trees that have adorned the campus for a century still stand. The 9 trees in the footprint of the building remain as well in the flooring and tables in the student lounge.
We decided to do a green wall on the south side of the building to insulate, you know, that southern exposure. and also make it a piece of art. There are about 13 different species of non-invasive plants, materials on the wall. It's actually in a DNA strand if you, if you look at it closely. It changes colors every season, so it has 4 distinct views.
A rooftop greenhouse allows students to manipulate plant growth conditions. Bill Nichols created this project with University President Pamela Davies.
Dr. Davies just raised $120 million over the last 4 or 5 years, right during the heat of the biggest recession in the history of the country. She's the perfect blend of an academic. She's got a PhD in strategic planning. She was dean of the business school. She runs the university And balance between business and academics.
The Rogers Building too is a balance between stately historic beauty and artistic insight. Truly a jewel in the crown of the Queen City.