Greenfire Reveals New Design for Geer Building Site that Retains Historic Storefronts

Talk of Greenfire's new design for the Geer Building site has been swirling around downtown for about a month now, but Kevin has posted renderings on the new design on his site. You can read more details about the development at his site.

Kudos to Greenfire for rethinking plans to demolish 120-122 West Main St. and 119 Parrish St. to build a large office tower. The new renderings show that at least the facades of the buildings appear to have been retained, and the street-level mass of these buildings is extended to the west by new 'storefront' construction. Thus the architectural fabric of downtown Durham is reinforced, rather than further diminished.


Looking northeast from Corcoran and West Main.
(Courtesy Bull City Rising)


Looking southeast from Corcoran between W. Parrish and E Chapel Hill.
(Courtesy Bull City Rising)


Looking southeast at the 100 West Parrish St. storefronts from W. Parrish and Corcoran.
(Courtesy Bull City Rising)

It's always very hard to tell with these multi-angled modernist structures how they are going to 'fit' based on the renderings. I'm impressed with the general plan, though - create urban height and mass, while also paying very close attention to the pedestrian-scale form and activity.

I'm struck, actually, how much it reminds me of a modern form of the Washington Duke Hotel, once one of Durham's signature architectural buildings that stood diagonally opposite the location of this new structure across the West Parrish and Corcoran intersection. (The original design of that building, anyway - the 60s saw an unfortunate bricking-in of the base of the building, eliminating the storefronts.) I'm impressed by the marriage of 'what works' with a creative aesthetic in a form that echos Durham's own architectural history.

I somewhat doubt that they will retain the entirety of the 120-122 West Main and 119 West Parrish buildings. To an extent, it becomes an exercise in futility to fight over the middle-of-the-block masonry of a structure gutted by fire. I do think 122 West Main is in better shape than the other contiguous structure, and I hope they'll be able to retain some of the original architectural elements. Given the condition and the persistent teetering-on-the-edge-of-demolition with these structures, if we can retain/repair the facades and a decent portion of the remainder of the building, I'm frankly relieved.

While I could quibble with aspects of the design that wouldn't be my preference, I think the rendering shows a very impressive balance between what Greenfire needs to build in order to attract tenants, historic preservation concerns, and urban planning/streetscape concerns. If anyone actually thought that my objections to Greenfire's previous plans had something to do with my day job, it didn't; this is the kind of change I was hoping for. I very much hope they succeed with this.

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