Greenfire

212box Architecture PC, Durham, NC

This concept design consists of multiple buildings and urban planning strategies for the city of downtown Durham. Durham is renowned for its roots in the tobacco and textile industry, a pioneer city and one of the early proponents of black entrepreneurial power.

The design intent takes these ideas and pushes them forward into the 21st century with innovative, sustainable buildings that draw people into the downtown area. Parrish Tower, on the site of the previous Woolworth building, is the keynote building of this development and is important toward redeveloping the downtown area. Three schemes were developed for the site with class A office space, and proposed cultural and retail components; all to obtain LEED platinum certification. The first scheme is an elegant form with a solar glass skin. The second is a complex form, providing view corridors toward the existing context with a structural skin. The third is the iconic scheme that emphasizes the twisting of three towers to represent the mixing of two historically important neighboring streets.