Durham County Unveils Latest Design for Judicial Center

As reported on Bull City Rising and in today's Herald-Sun, the County unveiled a new set of renderings for the south-of-the-jail (SoJa?) Judicial Center complex. Kevin over at Bull City Rising has done his usual thorough job of reporting the details, and I suggest checking out his post for the detailed breakdown.

One point I'd like to emphasize, which Kevin has already noted - but I feel is a serious flaw in the design: the lack of street level activity along the Roxboro-Dillard frontage.


(Courtesy of Bull City Rising)

The county's explanation that a wrapper, or street level office/retail is not feasible here - either for logistical reasons, or due to some legal obstacle to a public-private partnership - simply does not hold water. The only reason that the county is not going to build street presence on Dillard and Roxboro is because they are unwilling to do so.

The county has shown little sensitivity to the need to create street level activity at crucial intersections - most notably in the 500 block of East Main Street, where the county still intends to demolish several historic structures for temporary parking needs, but also with initial designs for the Human Services Complex. The general unwillingness to think about pedestrian-scale interaction with the city extends to plans for a parking deck plan for the 300 block of East Main St., where Glen Whisler told me several years ago that they might leave space for a wrapper on East Main St., but they wouldn't build it, or partner with anyone to build it, because they don't like to get involved in public-private partnerships.

Back to the deck at hand, the corner of Roxboro and Dillard is a crucial intersection for continuing the urban energy of American Tobacco eastward - one that needs to be matched by efforts north of the railroad tracks. By treating Roxboro purely as the back of the property, the county will squander the energy that could be created at this intersection by the judicial complex, the Venable campus, and the future redevelopment of the Elkins Chrysler dealership across Dillard St.

The body of evidence suggests that the county just does-not-get-it when it comes to elements of urban design that are crucial to the success of downtown Durham. I'm an architecture fan, obviously, but what the roof of the building is made out of is going to have a far smaller impact on the success of Durham East than two huge walls of parking deck greeting people driving north on the primary entryway into downtown from the freeway, and greeting people coming out of the Sommerhill gallery immediately to the east.