Durham City Center
Durham, North Carolina

Built Form is working closely with local developer Greenfire Development and the City of Durham, NC on plans for a revitalization of downtown Durham.

Built form’s role has been to provide master planning services for a series of developments designed to increase density and attract more people to live and work in the city center while remaining sympathetic to the city’s historic character.

A central feature of Downtown Durham is West Parrish Street; a street of enormous historical significance as the center of what was known as “Black Wall Street”, home to a number of African-American owned financial institutions which flourished throughout much of the 20th century.

Included among Greenfire’s many proposed projects are an office tower with a museum component, new street level retail development and several mid-rise residential buildings coupled with parking garages.

The first of these projects, a 150,000SF office building at 119 West Parrish Street for which Built Form has completed conceptual design, is now moving forward and has received unanimous approval from Durham’s Historic Preservation Committee.

Introductory research focused on history of Durham, through the analysis of historical buildings, as well as cultural and industrial factors associated with the tobacco industry and African American business entrepreneurs. In order to better understand the existing urban fabric, historical photographs, postcards, and current site photographs were assembled into a comprehensive catalogue. This information was instrumental in creation of a precise study model.

The historical and cultural research was agumented by investigation of current zoning guidelines. These guidelines along with the historical research and the client’s programmatic requirements resulted in a master plan proposal composed of office and residential towers and supporting retail and parking components. City blocks with pivotal buildings and historically contributing structures were further analyzed through technical drawings demarking the various fenestration patterns.

Further design development shifted to massing studies utiliziing a digital model which allowed for flexibilty in manipulation of form and proportions. Distribution of the housing, retail, and parking components was studied in the larger context model in order to account for their proximity to one another as well as their formal expression. The centerpiece of the proposed master plan became an iconic mixed-use/office tower. Design of the tower is currently being developed as the project 119 W Parrish Street, click here for more info.