Views of Durham: High and Low

by Julie Tetel Andresen | January 3, 2020 |

The title image is of one of the more classic views of Durham: Duke Chapel, West Campus. But I now have a unique angle on these views. This shot of the chapel is from my condo in One City Center. To get the frame I wanted I enlarged the image so much that it no longer looks like a photograph. It looks more like an Impressionist painting.

I walk a lot. So I am constantly seeing Durham at eye level. Yesterday afternoon I passed the not-yet-opened super-duper new Durham County Library:

Here’s what it looks like from the 28th floor of One City Center:

This juxtaposition made me think that you might enjoy seeing others.

Views of Durham: High and Low

Among the other well-known views of the city is the American Tobacco Campus.

Ground level:

OCC peeks up in the middle

South Bank from above, pretty much in the center of the image:

Also a good view of Five Points where West Main and West Chapel Hill Streets criss-cross and Morris Street starts and heads north, that is, the right.

On the street, looking east down West Main Street:

21C and OCC are stacked up in the middle ground

The Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company with Quality Products and Quality People. It was a cigarette factory and is now medical research labs:

My view of it as I passed by walking west on West Chapel Hill Street.

The other side of the building seen from West Main Street:

In the upper left is the North Carolina Mutual Life building from above:

Bonus feature: Hotel 21C is in the foreground. The balcony you see on the left-hand side of it is to the honeymoon suite. It has a hot tub. So far I have seen no honeymooners in action

And below:

I don’t think I ever noticed the wily Picasso-esque Durham Bull overseeing this intersection before I took this picture

Massive new apartment buildings are everywhere you look. Here’s the Central Park area with Liberty Warehouse, which are on the right-hand side of Foster Street. Foster on the Park is on the left-hand side.

The large white building on the horizon might be Duke Regional Hospital (once upon a time, Durham County General)

Street view of Liberty Warehouse apartments:

And Foster on the Park, under construction:

Views of Durham: Walking Around Downtown

The subtitle for this section could well be: The (Nearly) Inescapable OCC. Even without my trying, the views that caught my eye in downtown included One City Center, one way or the other.

Here’s a real old-time Durham brick wall on Parrish Street: