[Durham INC] Triangle Business Journal Recognizes Durham for Top Municipal Project

[Blalock, Amy]

CITY OF DURHAM

Office of Public Affairs

101 City Hall Plaza

Durham, NC 27701

 

 

News Release

 

For Details, Contact:

Amy Blalock

Sr. Public Affairs Specialist

(919) 560-4123 x 11253

(919) 475-7735 (cell)

Amy.Blalock at DurhamNC.gov

 

For Immediate Release:  February 3, 2011

 

 

Triangle Business Journal Recognizes Durham for Top Municipal Project

Durham Station Transportation Center Receives SPACE Award for Innovative Development

 

DURHAM, N.C. - Durham Station Transportation Center, the City of Durham's multimodal center built in 2009, received top honors at Triangle Business Journal's prestigious SPACE Awards banquet in Raleigh last week. 

 

"For those of us who remember the dilapidated hotel that once stood on this site, the Durham Station Transportation Center not only represents progress, but also a bold step toward improving mobility, access, and connectivity for our community," said City of Durham Mayor William V. "Bill" Bell.  "I am extremely proud that this 'top' award speaks to the building's value as a real estate and economic development project in our region."

 

The architect, The Freelon Group, Inc, designed this facility to not only serve as sustainable transit practice but to embrace energy conservation within its own footprint being more than 30 percent below standard energy usage.

 

According to Mark Ahrendsen, director of the City's Department of Transportation, the Durham Station Transportation Center has been a vital asset to the community that provides multiple alternatives to automobile traffic, reducing the number of vehicle trips and ultimately reducing the level of pollutant emissions that affect air quality, an essential component needed to support a growing city. "This award acknowledges the City's continued efforts and commitment to promoting thriving, livable communities and economic development as well as the continued renewal and revitalization of downtown Durham," Ahrendsen said.

 

There were nearly 100 nominations for the 2011 SPACE Awards according to the Triangle Business Journal. Other SPACE Award recipients in Durham include two downtown businesses, Beyu Caffé and Precision BioSciences, as well as the Research Tri-Center Industrial Park, which received an award for top sales transaction, which the Triangle Business Journal reported as a $76.95 million deal. Syngenta Biosciences made the Top Land Sales Transaction and received second place honors for its Top Flex/Warehouse Lease Deal in Keystone Park in Durham. The American Underground project at the American Tobacco Campus in downtown Durham received honorable mention in the Top Space Build-Out Project.

 

The SPACE Awards are presented by Triangle Business Journal, a weekly business newspaper that provides local business news for the Triangle region. The January 28, 2011 edition of the Triangle Business Journal includes an in-depth special section on the SPACE Awards winners with profiles of the deals and projects. Winners were chosen by an expert panel of judges from the Triangle based on nominations submitted for local projects. The Top State/County/Municipal Project was one of five new categories added for the 2011 award program.

 

Durham Station Transportation Center received top honors in the 2009 Golden Leaf Award for Community Appearance in which it competed against the neighboring Durham Performing Arts Center, another award-winning City facility.

 

About Durham Station Transportation Center

Durham Station Transportation Center, built where the old Heart of Durham Hotel once stood, provides multiple alternatives to automobile traffic. The facility is a two-story, 10,300 square foot building which serves 4.5 million of DATA's 5 million annual passengers. It features 20 canopied bus bays, six parking spaces for taxicabs, disability parking, and short-term parking as well as bicycle racks and a drop-off location for "kiss and ride." Durham Station Transportation Center is the community's transportation hub and home of local, regional, and intercity bus service as well as taxi service. The multimodal center reflects the rich cultural history of the City of Durham. The materials used reference the visual and tactile texture of masonry found in Durham's tobacco warehouses and renders them in a more contemporary industrial aesthetic, while embracing the equally strong tradition of innovation and progress in Durham. The $17.6 million project was made possible by a combination of City, state, and federal funding. To learn more, visit http://data.durhamnc.gov/durham_station.cfm. 

 

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