ask alwz

Q: Where exactly is the Horace Williams tract? What does UNC propose to do with it? What is the timetable for the development plans? -- P.L.

A: The University-owned Horace Williams tract consists of 979 acres located 1 1/2 miles north of the UNC campus, according to a Town-Gown Committee Presentation Report dated Feb. 5, 2001.

The land is bordered to the east by Airport Road, to the north and west by Homestead Road and to the south by Estes Drive.

Architectural planning firm Ayers Saint Gross, which is developing UNC's Master Plan, said that about 550 acres of the land are good for development.

The tract is allotted to the Horace Williams Airport, the University Physical Plant, future development and open space preservation.

The University has leased some of its tax-free property to the town of Chapel Hill. Some of the town's trucks and buses are based and serviced there.

UNC administrators, the community and consultants are currently debating the land's use.

Proposals for the tract under UNC's Master Plan include transforming the wooded tract into a park of about 9 million square feet of company space, offices, research labs, homes, shops and civic buildings.

Q: Can you tell me why man began framing artwork? Was it for practical or aesthetic reasons? -- F.D.

A: Before the 15th century in Europe, pictures and their frames were a single unit. According to the Grove Dictionary of Art, "their fusion was commonplace in the Renaissance, when paintings and relief sculptures were integrated with architectural frames in wood or marble."

Between 2000 and 1000 B.C., decorative geometric margins first appeared on tomb and vase paintings. They divided narrative scenes and decorations into horizontal bands, and vertical divisions were added later.

"A millennium later, in Classical Greece, the borders of mosaics became the organizing structure of the whole, arranging figures and scenes into an abstract pattern of circles and spandrels, squares and lozenges," the dictionary states.

When images became more important in their own right, frames served as safeguards and provided focus and depth.

Fore more information on frames, visit the dictionary's Web site at http://www.groveart.com.

Q: Why is it that the Old Well no longer has a working water fountain? -- S.S.

A: The University shuts off the water to prevent it from freezing.

Maintenance Services uses daylight-saving time as a rough time frame to determine when to turn the water off and on. The department usually shuts off the water in October or November and turns it on in early March, depending on the weather.

Q: Where can I find UNC enrollment statistics, specifically the percentage of "other" or mixed-race students? -- L.M.

A: Among the 24,872 graduate and undergraduate students at UNC, 0.1 percent identified themselves as other according to data from the Office of Institutional Research (http://www.ais.unc.edu/ir). The office's Web site contains a section dedicated to fall 2000 student data.

Alex Molaire is a senior journalism major from Rochester, NY. If you need a question answered, e-mail her at alex47@email.unc.edu.