Superficial Sustainability at Duke : Garden Street Store demolished rather than moved

Former Garden Street Store, 09.06.09

With 'Green' and 'Sustainable' being tossed around so casually these days by the marketing department of every institution and corporation, it's hard to get a sense of whether there is any substance behind the rhetoric. When you can get a solid view of a group/institution/corporation's actions, behind the press releases and eco-parties, you can see how the decision-making really plays out.

Because preservation is not part of the hip, green, shiny-solar-panel fad that is going on in the moment (which will inevitably fade away) but does represent the most sustainable re-use of building resources, it's a good barometer of whether sustainable decisions are made outside of the marketing department.

Duke tore down the most significant historic structure remaining in the western portion of the West Durham mill village last week - the Garden Street Store - in order to build a new faux-historic store on the spot. It appears that they are preparing to demolish at least one of the adjacent mill houses as well. The most bizarre aspect of this is that Duke assured members of the community several years ago that they would allow the community an opportunity to move the structures, and contribute a token amount towards the moving costs.

After Central Campus plans went into deep freeze for awhile, the only indication that something was happening here was the astute community pickup of a site plan submission to the planning department, which detailed the impending demolition of the structures. Calls to Duke regarding the moving of the structures elicited disinterested responses.


Former Garden St. Grocery in its upright state, 04.04.09

Why? Even ignoring the best option, which would be to reuse the structures on site, why not allow the community to move the structures? How much sweat off the back of Duke does that involve? The structures get gone, and Duke gets some decent PR in the community. Instead, the structure highlighted by the historic survey as the most significant structure remaining in the entire Central Campus area (aside from the already-moved-for-a-parking-lot Blacknall House) is just a pile of useless rubble.

I understand that there may be costs involved in doing the right thing, in making sustainable environmental choices - and companies/institutions can't always take additional costs on the chin and stay viable - tough choices must sometimes be made. But here the costs to Duke were neutral, and it becomes clear that Duke's commitment to sustainability is absolute - unless it is inconvenient. Is that Bleeding Blue, Living Green?