Alumni Hall to be renovated for academic space

Wake Forest is beginning to take action on its near-term Central Campus space plan as part of its strategy to renew academic and student support spaces. The first step will be the renovation of most of Alumni Hall into academic space, bringing the departments of Philosophy, Education, and Computer Science and the Entrepreneurship program under one roof. 

The connectivity and potential community between these disciplines invite innovative interdisciplinary collaboration and encourage experiential pedagogy. Moreover, this relocation creates much-needed room and purpose-built space to support specialized and experiential research, mentored scholarship, community engagement, and project-based, hands-on learning. 

Last week, the University announced that University Advancement and University Marketing and Communications (formerly CER, now a distinct unit from Advancement) will move to the University Corporate Center (UCC), creating room for the academic renovation.

What’s Next: Academic Units

No academic departments or programs will be moving this semester. Timeline development is in process with the earliest academic moves likely taking place in Summer 2026. To avoid interruption of teaching and learning, academic moves will only take place during the summer or during winter breaks.

The iterative design phase for the new academic spaces in Alumni Hall will begin shortly and will be an inclusive, exciting process. This phase will include opportunities for the departments of Computer Science, Education, and Philosophy and the Entrepreneurship program to provide input, ensuring that the new spaces meet their needs and support their continued success.

Renovating Alumni Hall into academic space will be completed with student, faculty, and staff engagement; by adhering to our campus learning spaces and facilities’ standards and industry best practices; and through attention to its impact on the class schedule and continuity of student, faculty, and staff experiences traveling campus.

Creating new spaces for vibrant departments and programs and supporting them with modern, purpose-built teaching, learning, gathering and research spaces will attract students, faculty, staff, and visitors and help activate more of our beautiful campus.

Other academic units will not be part of this initial move. However, the space planning process remains ongoing and academic needs are top of mind. Future phases may involve additional relocations or reconfigurations.

What’s Next: UCC and future moves

University Advancement and University Marketing and Communications will be the only administrative units to relocate this year, moving to the UCC in November-December. The UCC currently houses Information Systems, Finance and WFDD and is also the location for KinderCare, the University’s Child Care center, which opened this fall.  

Carter and Front Street Capital, the developers of University-owned property along Deacon Boulevard, are preparing to build an office building that will ultimately house non-student-facing units (University Advancement; University Marketing and Communications; Finance, Audit & Compliance; Human Resources; Information Systems; and Legal). 

This project dovetails with our new Campus Master Plan work, which we anticipate will begin later this fall and which will address other impacted buildings, including Scales Fine Arts Center, ZSR Library and Wait Chapel.