Capital Planning’s Bailey calls Culp Center renovation ‘modern’

Assistant Vice President of Capital Planning Laura Bailey served the team that worked to coordinate the logistics for reopening the D.P. Culp Student Center.

This included coordination with architects, contractors and stakeholders involved throughout the project.

“I have been part of a larger team that worked on developing the design of the newly renovated space and oversight of construction,” said Bailey. “This includes the selection and implementation of all the design details involved in planning [and] implementing a project of this size.”

Bailey is a three-time graduate of ETSU with two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree and has seen the Culp Center both as a student and a staff member.

“I am proud to be part of this project that enhances the student experience,” said Bailey. “Having experienced the Culp Center as a student and now as a staff member, I am very proud of the improvements to the building.”

The renovated Culp Center design is now more modern in style and decoration.

“The original design of the building is considered ‘Brutalistic,'” said Bailey. “When the Culp Center was designed in the 1970s, this style was ‘in vogue [and] cutting edge.’ The new addition and renovation of the center are considered ‘modern’ architecture, which compliments [and] enhances the original design.”

Bailey said that she is excited about the new “flow” throughout the building. The design embraces an east to west connection for the campus.  

Bailey said students can enter the east side of the Culp Center and walk past all the new additions on the first floor on their way to the west side of campus, and that soon the Cave would be open to students on the west side as a gathering space and a gaming center. Bailey also said spaces on the second and third floor would be used as meeting rooms and offices for campus services.

The Culp Center serves as a community center for the ETSU campus. Food service areas, the bookstore, a post office, meeting facilities, student and administrative offices, recreational opportunities and meeting facilities are held inside.

The center closed for a renovation in May 2018, so now two years and more than $45 million later, it is open and has a modern makeover. The 40-plus-year-old building is now 250,000 square feet, which is 20,000 square feet bigger than before.