304-308 North Mangum Street

Looking northeast from North Mangum and Holloway St., 1963?
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Looking north from Fire Station #1, 09.20.54.
(Courtesy The Herald-Sun Newspaper)

The east side of the 300 block of North Mangum St. and the north side of the 100 block of Holloway St. developed as a residential area during the late 1800s, which was supplanted by commercial buildings and apartments during the late 1910s / early 1920s. The corner building above, with its unique brickwork at the cornice must have been built by the same contractor who built the Bittman Apartments - directly to its east on Holloway.

Bittman Apts, with the Planters Warehouse and Fuller school in the background - looking northeast from the 100 block of Holloway, 1963?
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

These buildings held on for a few years after the Planter's warehouse and northern portion of the block were demolished.

Looking east, 1964.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

In 1964, they were demolished as well.

302-308 N. Mangum demolition, 02.12.64

Looking northeast at the corner of Holloway and North Mangum, 1965.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

This area was being developed per the grand vision of the Tarrant plan, Which envisioned a giant government complex on this site, with green space stretching westward. These ideas were picked up by the Durham Civic-Convention Center Commission, the Downtown Revitalization Foundation, and the Bell Design Group, which endorsed a new City Hall, a new Courthouse, and a new convention center to be built at Roney, Chapel Hill and Foster Sts.

For about 10 years, this land remained solely surface parking. However, through a Federal revenue sharing program (that I don't completely understand) Durham somehow managed to "get $25.4 million value out of an $11 million gift." This financed all of these buildings, and a slew of other infrastructure projects.

The city hall was begun in 1975.

Looking northeast, 1975.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Looking southeast 1975.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

Looking west, 1975.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

And was completed by 1978.

Looking northeast, 1978.
(Courtesy Durham County Library)

The old city hall on Morris St. was decommissioned, and became the home of the arts council. This remains the main city hall building.

Looking northeast, 2006.

And man, it is a tough building to try to appreciate. I don't know who designed this building, but yikes. As I've said before, I do give them points for trying to make it interesting. But the strange facade, the metal railings, the tower, the round thing on the side that I assume was a parking exit - it's an odd silliness paired with an intensely imposing building. Frankly, looking at the pictures above, I can find some appreciation for the design. But the experience of walking by it is a completely different story. Ugh.

People have accused me of being anti-modern, or even anti-post modern (which is what I would call this.) I'm really not; but it seems that modernism and post-modernism have a greater capacity for sheer ugly to me than classical forms. Perhaps the greater freedom to design anything without rules can allow you to reach both great heights and dark depths of design.

I'm always cautious about wishing for a building's demise - am I making the same judgment that my predecessors did 50 years ago about the buildings I think were beautiful? It's hard to imagine with City Hall, simply because, whimsy aside, it is so out of scale to the area. Perhaps on a street full of skyscrapers it would be interesting (and, to be fair, I know that's how they envisioned the future Durham in the early 70s - all LeCorbusier.) Here, it's monstrously outsized and awkward.

Standing near the former northwest corner of Holloway and Cleveland Sts., looking northwest, 2007