About

This project includes both an addition to and a partial renovation of Kenneth E. Peacock Hall, home to the students, faculty and staff of App State’s Walker College of Business (WCOB). The project is expected to extend the life of the building by 30–50 years.

Built in 1990, the 130,000-square-foot, four-story Peacock Hall is due for a systematic renovation to replace elevators, HVAC/controls and chillers, as well as the tiered, lecture-style classrooms that make up 80% of Peacock Hall’s classrooms. The classrooms’ fixed seating — ideal in the 90’s, when students passively listened to lectures — now hinders daily reconfigurations of classroom furniture that allow students to form smaller, more agile project teams.

Proposed facilities under discussion for the building’s new addition include:

• Classrooms.
• Common areas.
• A learning lab.
• Special use areas for campus events.
• Mechanical infrastructure space.
• Student service offices.

The vision for the learning lab space includes features such as a real-time stock market ticker and Bloomberg terminals that offer financial analysis software — providing students with cutting-edge academic experiences.

A planned bridge between the existing building and the addition will connect the first and second floors. The scope of renovations for Peacock Hall will be determined following the completion of the building’s addition, which will be constructed in phases.

This project will support planning for the greater district goal of opening Boone Creek and replacing surface parking with a new parking structure, along with a redesign of traffic flow for buses.

Walker College is accredited by AACSB International — the premier global accrediting body for schools of business — and offers 11 undergraduate majors and three master’s degree programs, including its nationally and internationally recognized Master of Business Administration (MBA) program.

Peacock Hall also houses several units that support students campuswide and in which faculty and staff engage in multidisciplinary research that benefits both campus and the local community. These include the Transportation Insight Center for Entrepreneurship, Center for Economic Research and Policy Analysis and Brantley Risk and Insurance Center.

The building is named in honor of App State’s seventh leader, Kenneth E. Peacock, who was a professor in the college before serving as chancellor of the university from 2004–14.

Status

Peacock Hall’s addition is anticipated to open for the fall 2026 semester. For the spring 2025 semester, Peacock Hall’s main entrance has been shifted to the building entrance available from Howard Street, during the first phase of the addition’s construction.

The Peacock Hall addition/renovation project is nearly 20% complete, as of March. Underground utilities for the addition are being installed over the next two months, and a new chiller has been installed in the existing building’s mechanical room.

Design work for the Peacock Hall addition was completed in fall 2023, and preparation work for the project took place in spring 2024, with site fencing installed in July 2024. Demolition of the facility’s exterior patio area was completed in early fall 2024. Over the university’s 2024 winter break, workers installed the first phase of temporary interior partition walls on the building’s first and second floors, which included installing new signage, doors and frames.

The fenced area for the Peacock Hall construction site includes a portion of the adjacent Peacock Parking Lot. During the addition’s construction, parking will be unavailable in the rows located to the right of Peacock Lot’s entrance off of Rivers Street (the side of the lot that’s closest to Peacock Hall). New River Hall Lot has been reserved for faculty/staff permit holders.

A new pickup/drop-off area for AppalCART buses has been created in the Duncan/Rankin Parking Lot. The walkway located between the Edwin Duncan Hall Octagon and the former Peacock Traffic Circle, which provides access to the wide-walk that extends throughout the east side of the Boone campus, will remain open throughout the addition’s construction. Pedestrian crossings have been implemented between the the Peacock and Duncan/Rankin Parking lots and between the bus pickup/drop-off area and the walkway located between the Edwin Duncan Hall Octagon and the former Peacock Traffic Circle.

How is it funded?

App State received $25 million in legislative funding support for the Peacock Hall project as part of the FY 2021–22 biennial budget bill, signed into law by Gov. Roy Cooper on Nov. 18, 2021. The bill also includes $200,000 for upgrades to Peacock Hall’s existing elevators. As part of the FY 2023–24 biennial budget bill, the state allocated an additional $15 million in support of the Peacock Hall project.

The university’s Building Leaders fundraising initiative will supplement the state-allocated funds, with $5 million of the initiative’s $15 million goal dedicated toward the construction of the Peacock Hall addition. Building Leaders funds will also support faculty professorships, student scholarships and Dean’s Club-funded opportunities, such as professional development, study abroad programs, research and guest lectures from industry leaders, in Walker College. As of November 2024, App State had raised $13.9 million through the Building Leaders initiative.

A learning lab, to be constructed as part of the Peacock Hall addition, will be funded in part by a $1.3 million gift that App State alumnus Dennis Covington ’92 and his wife, Katherine Covington, made to App State in support of academic resources for Walker College and facilities for App State Athletics.

Who will benefit?

The college’s faculty, staff and approximately 4,000 students will benefit from the additional classroom, lab and office space provided through the Peacock Hall addition/renovation project.

Also, this project will help the Walker College of Business attract additional recruiters and high-profile business leaders who speak and engage with students at Walker College events, such as the Boyles Distinguished Lecture Series, the Global Opportunities and Business for Good Conference, and the Walker Business Connections Career Fair.

How does it support UNC System Goals and Metrics?

Providing the best environment for teaching and learning can impact recruitment and retention of students, faculty and staff.