The Duke Campus: Our Favorite Places

One of the best things about Duke is the endless variety of places for students to hang out, study, read, create, and relax. The campus is comfortable, busy, and challenging. It's diverse in both atmosphere and attitude, and it's varied in landscape and architecture. Most of all, Duke is a place that students are proud to call home. Wherever you are—East Campus or West Campus, in a classroom, gym, or research lab—there is a strong sense of community, a true bond that comes from the connection that students feel to each other and to their beautiful home.

Here are some favorite places at Duke:

Bryan Center

Most Duke students stop in at the Bryan Center at least once a day. It's where you meet up with friends, check your mail, get cash from the ATM, and grab a cheeseburger and fries from McDonalds or a smoothie and salad from the always-bustling Alpine Atrium.

It's also a popular study spot for those times when you don't want total isolation, and it's a hangout for many professors—which can result in some great conversations. The Bryan Center also features several stores, the offices of the Duke Student Government, and other student organizations. You can catch a movie at Griffith Film Center, a concert at Reynolds Theatre, or a Hoof 'n' Horn production at Sheafer Theater.

Mary Biddle Music Building

Why do Duke musicians love this place? Perhaps it's because of its 20 practice rooms with grand pianos, four organ practice rooms, a harpsichord practice room, and the huge rehearsal hall. Or maybe it's the computer music studio that features Mac G3s and G4s, Yamaha TG77 synthesizers, a Roland JV-2080, an Akai S5000 sampler, a Lexicon LXP-15 digital effects device, CD recorders, a Mackie CR-1604VLZ mixer, and KRK D9000 studio monitors. Then again, it might be the Media Center that has around 20,000 sound recordings and a state-of-the-art listening center... or the Music Library with its 85,000 books, scores, journals, microfilms, and special collections. Maybe you'll have to decide for yourself.

Bostock Library

Part of the expansion of the prestigious Perkins Library, the new five-story Bostock Library creates a beautiful setting for study, learning, and research. Bostock features a two-story reading room, classrooms for the Center for Instructional Technology, 73,000 feet of shelving for special collections, and wireless and high-speed Internet access throughout the building. A three-story gateway connects it to Perkins. Nearby is the von der Heyden Pavilion, a stunning glass-walled space designed for conversation, study, and collaboration. The pavilion even has its own cafe and coffee shop.

Cameron Indoor Stadium

Legends are made here, noise levels are off the charts, and the sea of blue faces and t-shirts is like nothing you've seen (well, maybe you've seen it on ESPN, but wait until you're really here). Cameron Indoor Stadium is home to the men's and women's volleyball and basketball teams. Sports Illustrated ranks it in the world's top 20 sporting venues, and USA Today referred to it as "the toughest road game in the nation"—thanks, of course, to the devoted and decibel-busting Cameron Crazies that pack the place for every game!

K-Ville

We can't mention the Cameron Crazies without mentioning what is inarguably one of Duke's most well-known traditions. Since February 1986, Duke has been home to Krzyzewskiville—or K-Ville, as most of us call it—a community of devout Blue Devil fans who, every year during basketball season, camp out on Cameron's front lawn in order to score tickets for the biggest games.

Nooree Lee ('06) offers his take on the K-ville experience: "Every year, ESPN's 'Sportscenter' does a two-minute bit on the roughly 500 Duke students who live in Tent City every year, sometimes for up to a month and a half. Students form tents of 12 and take turns manning the tent during the daytime. Official line monitors administer the shantytown, ensuring that order is kept and that every tent is accounted for. This often results in random tent checks, sometimes at 3 a.m.! Living in a tent can be exhausting but the experience is so unique to Duke—every undergrad should experience Tent City!"

Duke Chapel

Beautiful, sky-scraping Duke Chapel—we all love its grand façade, soaring roof, and incredible stained-glass windows. We love the way the tower rises above the trees, providing a point of reference for disoriented first-year students. We love its non-denominational Sunday services, chamber concerts, the Chapel Choir, and the fact that it's always there when we need a quiet respite.

Our Dorm Rooms

So, they don't rank up there with other campus landmarks, but hey, they're home! This is where we sleep, study, hang out with friends and neighbors, and contemplate the world. It's where we play Xbox, call our families, send e-mails, IM our friends, and ask our roommates to please clean up their side of the room. Maybe we have posters on every wall and lights strung across the ceiling, or maybe we pile stacks of books, papers, and lecture notes everywhere. However we choose to "decorate," we make our dorm rooms places we really want them to be.