The Durham Station Transportation Center (DSTC) collects multiple alternatives to automobile transit onto a single site in a vibrant revitalized district in downtown Durham.  The $17.6 million project, made possible by a combination of city, state, and federal funding, helps ensure more efficient transportation throughout the city and region.  The Center’s site is adjacent to the new Durham Amtrak station and the future downtown commuter rail station, which reinforces the facility’s function as a multi-modal hub for mass transit. 

The two-story, 10,300 square foot building serves 4.5 million of Durham Area Transit’s (DATA) 5 million annual passengers. Durham Station boasts 20 canopied bus bays, spaces for taxicabs, disability parking, short-term parking, bicycle racks and a “kiss and ride” drop-off location. The bus program includes local DATA buses, regional Triangle Transit Authority (TTA) buses and intercity Greyhound bus service. 

The building’s curved and layered glass curtainwall articulates movement amidst perforated metal scrim and masonry site walls.  The adjacency of the building’s edge to Chapel Hill Street and Pettigrew Street informs the sweeping lines of the building while providing open views to transit activities serving the facility. The soaring scrim denotes entry while orienting pedestrians along the edge of the site. 

The DSTC design reflects the City of Durham’s rich cultural history by referencing the visual and tactile texture of masonry found in Durham’s tobacco warehouses. The design incorporates these materials and renders them in a more contemporary industrial aesthetic, which embraces the city’s strong tradition of innovation and progress. The expansive glass walls offer a secure environment, visibility of transportation activities and views of the downtown area, Historic American Tobacco redevelopment and West Village mixed use development. Articulated metal roof forms, masonry, and concrete embraces the location’s industrial context while acknowledging the dynamic movement of Durham Station’s transit program and its adjacent intermodal transit facilities. 

The interior program includes waiting areas for transit riders with adjacent support spaces. Similar lighting, furniture, and finishes are used inside and outside the building to create a seamless transition between building and site. The Lucky Strike Cigarettes logo and font (the cigarettes were once produced at the adjacent historic American Tobacco Campus) inspired the color, pattern, and typeface for interior elements and signage. 

The City of Durham made a commitment to sustainable design during the planning of the DSTC and targeted a design that would be 25% more efficient than ASHRAE 90.1 energy standards.  Integrating the transparency of glass with an aggressive energy target proved to be a challenge that drove the basic planning and form of the building. Oriented along an east/west axis, the south façade is shaded by deep roof overhangs and horizontal sun shade louvers. All of the glazing is high performance, low-e, insulated glass that is more than twice as efficient as conventional insulated glass systems while allowing more visible light to pass through. Not only does the glass provide security and visual connectivity to the surrounding city, it provides ample daylighting as well. Daylighting was digitally modeled during the planning phases in order to coordinate passive shading systems with active strategies such as day light sensors and heating and ventilation system capacities.  

The DSTC is designed to enhance and expand the use of public transportation in the City of Durham. The site is intended to feel as much like a park as it is a transit center; lush landscaping, benches and covered canopies provide respite and protective comfort for the facility’s ridership. Durham Station Transportation Center practically and poetically expresses the city’s commitment to public transportation and will inspire new riders to utilize an expanding mass transit system for generations to come.

Photography: 

James West/JWest Productions