NISS Holds Groundbreaking for Addition
T
he National Institute of Statistical
Sciences broke ground on
November 2, 2007, for the addition
to its building in Research Triangle Park,
North Carolina. The ceremony took place
as part of the 2007 annual meeting of the
NISS board of trustees, most of who were
present. Also present were all directorate
members of the Statistical and Applied
Mathematical Sciences Institute and staffs
of both SAMSI and NISS. The NISS/
SAMSI family was joined by representatives
from O’Brien/Atkins, architects for the
original NISS building and the addition;
Clancy & Theys, general contractors for
the original building and addition; and
BB&T, NISS’ bank and financier.
NISS Director Alan Karr served as emcee
for the ceremony, which was held on a per-
fect North Carolina fall day—sunny, breezy,
and seasonably cool—and took place within
The groundbreakers (from left) include Daniel Solomon, James Landwehr, Jon Kettenring, Nell
the spray-painted outline of the footprint of
Sedransk, James Berger, and Alan Karr.
the addition. Karr told onlookers, “It took
us a long time to get to this point, but with
the continued maturation of NISS and
the renewal of SAMSI’s NSF funding for
2007–2012, both institutes need this new
space so that we can keep moving forward
together.” Karr recalled the essential roles
of Daniel Horvitz (the godfather of NISS
in the very best sense) and Jerome Sacks,
founding director, in bringing the original
building to reality. He also pointed out that,
“In light of the red clay soil of the North
Carolina Piedmont, and since statisticians
are not construction workers, we had dig-
gable soil trucked in for the occasion.”
Then, wearing their Clancy & Theys hard-
hats and using their spray-painted gold shov-
els, Karr and five others—Daniel Solomon,
chair of the SAMSI governing board; James
Landwehr, who will become chair of the NISS
Elevations for the building addition. The north elevation faces the parking lot.
board in July 2008; Jon Kettenring, chair of
the NISS building committee; Nell Sedransk,
associate director of NISS and SAMSI; and
It converts the rectangular existing building Carolina chapter of the American Institute
James Berger, director of SAMSI—broke the
into an L, in whose elbow sits the parking of Architects, will be occupied principally by
specially prepared ground. Each of the other
lot. The office, conference room, and sup- NISS, with SAMSI retaining one-half of the
“official groundbreakers” provided words
port space in the addition will be occupied second floor.
suited to the occasion. Then, everyone had
by SAMSI. NISS and SAMSI will share a Additional photographs of the ground-
his or her chance to “turn dirt.”
new, 50-person meeting room with state- breaking may be found at www.niss.
The 12,500-square-foot, two-story addi-
of-the-art video, audio, and communica- org/photogallery/groundbreaking200711/
tion—which mirrors but does not duplicate
tion systems, as well as an upstairs break hardhats200711.html. NISS plans an ongo-
the dark brick-and-corrugated metal esthetic
room and rooftop terrace. The ‘old’ build- ing photographic log of the construction, so
of NISS’ 16,000-square-foot building—is
ing, which was constructed in 1997 and be sure to check the web site frequently. n
scheduled to be completed in July of 2008.
won a 2005 design award from the North
10 AMSTAT NEWS JANUARY 2008
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