Triangle Modern Architects

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 6

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS VICTORIA BALLARD BELL

16

A TURNING POINT FOR

CHAPTER 2 30

ARCHITECTURE

MODERNISM TAKES ROOT IN THE TRIANGLE

IN NORTH CAROLINA 8

PREFACE

44

ARCHITECTS

FRANK HARMON

10

INTRODUCTION

EARLY TRIANGLE MODERN

46

HENRY KAMPHOEFNER

50

LEIF VALAND

54

WILLIAM HENLEY DEITRICK

58

G. MILTON SMALL, JR.

68

MACIEJ “MATTHEW” NOWICKI

72

JAMES W. FITZGIBBON

76

GEORGE MATSUMOTO

80

EDUARDO CATALANO

86

JOHN DONALD LATIMER

90

EDWARD WALTER “TERRY” R. WAUGH

92

BRIAN SHAWCROFT

96

ARTHUR COGSWELL, JR.

100

HARWELL HAMILTON HARRIS

104

LOUIS SUMNER WINN, JR.

108

JON ANDRE CONDORET

112

OWEN FRANKLIN SMITH

116

MACON STROTHER SMITH

CHAPTER 3 122

126

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

CHAPTER 4 236

APPRECIATION,

OF TRIANGLE MODERN

PRESERVATION, AND

ARCHITECTURE

EVOLUTION

244

EPILOGUE GEORGE SMART

246

BACK MATTER

247

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

CURRENT TRIANGLE MODERN ARCHITECTS

WEBSITES REFERENCE 128

FRANK HARMON

134

DAIL DIXON

140

GEORGIA BIZIOS

146

KENNETH HOBGOOD

154

STEVE SCHUSTER

160

PHILIP SZOSTAK

168

PHILIP G. FREELON

174

LOUIS CHERRY

182

TURAN DUDA

190

MICHAEL STEVENSON

194

SUSAN AND ROGER CANNON

202

DENNIS STALLINGS

208

ELLEN WEINSTEIN

214

ELLEN CASSILLY

220

ERIN STERLING LEWIS, MATTHEW GRIFFITH

226

KATHERINE HOGAN, VINCENT PETRARCA

248

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS

249

PROJECT CREDITS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

When I moved to the Triangle in 2001, I was grateful for the atmosphere of progressive thought and the community of modern designers I had entered. I officially became a licensed architect in Raleigh and was proud to be part of a collective of designers who cared deeply about modern architecture and its future. After working in Charlottesville, Baltimore, and New York City, working for Kenneth Hobgood in Raleigh made me feel like I had found my “architecture office home.” I was amazed by his world-class, rigorous design work coupled with his modest friendly office. I later learned this was how things operated in the Triangle: high design with a humble undercurrent. Through the years since then, I began to hear stories of the past architects who worked in the region and was amazed by the significant history and the excellence of the mid-century architecture that surrounded us in the Triangle. I was also surprised to find that there was no publication relaying this fascinating history or celebrating the successes of these architects and their work. Catherine Bishir’s North Carolina Architecture is North Carolina’s most comprehensive architectural publication but ends its survey in 1941. The fact that some of the work done in the Triangle can be traced back to the origins of European Modernism and that most local people did not even know of this connection was surely a story that needed to be told. After publishing two books with Princeton Architectural Press, Materials for Design, Volumes 1 and 2, and being aware of the time commitment needed to write a book, I knew I had committed myself to a substantial task.

Thankfully, professor and architect Robert Burns collected notes and materials from his years under Dean Henry Kamphoefner. Upon Professor Burn’s untimely death in 2005, Roger H. Clark, architect and professor at the College of Design, edited these recollections and reflections from this early time period in the North Carolina State University publication School of Design: The Kamphoefner Years 1948–1973, published by the College of Design. This collection of memories from the teachers, professors, students and visitors who had come through the School of Design at that time was a launching pad for Triangle Modern Architecture.

Another great source was George Smart through his efforts and endless work in creating the North Carolina Modernist Houses website in 2007. This documentation of houses in the Triangle region grew rapidly and is creating one of the largest archives of modern architecture in the nation. His public awareness and service in saving modern buildings has brought much public appreciation to modern architecture, not only in our region but also nationally. If it were not for the support, legwork, and amount of information George had already researched, many of the stories in this book would never have been told here.

This limits of this one book could not be a comprehensive or a complete collection of the richness and excellence of the work of modern architects in this region. I understand there are many stories to tell, and this is just one limited version. This is not intended to be an academic text or thorough history of the subject, but to be a story about the area’s design culture for the general public. I sincerely apologize if I have have misstated any facts. I welcome corrections and suggestions for future printings.

I do regret I could not include in these finite pages more of the many talented Triangle architects. The troubling part of this writing process was having to exclude many worthy and talented architects, past and present, who could not be included due to space, cost, and sanity. However, that’s also the good news. This region was, and remains, a breeding ground for high-quality modern design. Perhaps there can be a second edition.

Substantial credit and great appreciation for the research that has shaped this book is due to the students of the NCSU School of Architecture Triangle Modern Architecture class, taught by Bryan Bell, who also served as the Principal Investigator for this book. The students’ intelligence and very hard work continue the legacy of outstanding scholarship of NCSU students. They are Maan Abdulwahab Alzamel, Wyatt Daniel Barnes, Jacob E. Berry, Forrest G. Britton, Gerardo Cavillo Mora, Elizabeth Sarah (Betsey) Clark, Sara Michelle Clark, Robert Perry Davis, Zachary Daniel (Zach) Dawkins, Daniel M. (Matus) Ferguson, Timothy Joseph (Tim) Fico, Anna Kaitlyn (Kaitie) Gay, Nicholas Bevan (Nick) Hales, Sarah Elizabeth Hefner, Matthew Scott Hirsch, David Maxwell (Max) Hodge, Maria Alejandra Jaramillo, Afsoon Kangarlouhaghighi, Caroline Nicole Lawson, Anastasiia Leonova, Helen Majors Marrin, James Gabriel Justin McNair, Elenor Louise Methven, Scott Russell Nelsen, Faustine Pastor, Madison Justine Plimpton, Kylie Mizuki Pond, James Daniel Popin, Brandon Scott Porterfield, Sondra R. Rogal, Jane Ayers Rothwell, Marc Anthony Ryan, Astha Shrenik Shah, Eli Toufic Simaan, Nicole Elizabeth Vieth, Lydia Marie Watt, Emily Elizabeth (Emmy) Wood, and Ziyuan Zhou. Special thanks to Astha Shrenick Shah, Sarah Elizabeth Hefner, and Sondra R. Rogal for their work as research editors, and to Jane Ayers Rothwell and Rachel Haas for their contributions.

Thank you to the amazing and patient staff at the North Carolina State University Libraries, especially Gwynn Thayer, Clara Wilson, Virginia Ferris and Peter Schreiner.

Thank you to my exceptional editors, Shannon Turlington and Matthew Somoroff, who asked me all the hard questions and cleaned up so much of my dirty work. Thank you to the North Carolina State Archives and Van Evans for their untiring and tenacious help and valuable expertise. A huge thank you to Gordon Goff for believing in this book and everyone at ORO Editions for the amazing work they do every day. Thank you especially to Jake Anderson for his great patience and expertise.

Thank you to the University of Virginia’s “A-School” and all of the teachers there who inspired me, believed in me, and made me the architect I am: W.G. Clark, Bill Sherman, Robin Dripps, and Reuben M. Rainey.

For me personally, I could never have had the luxury to write this book without the persistent and steadfast love and support of my husband, cheerleader, and public interest guru, Bryan Bell.

I dedicate this book to Bryan, Lily Sky, Cole, and the first and coolest mid-century Modernists I ever knew in life, Richard and Valerie Ballard.

6 7

PREFACE BY FRANK HARMON

In July 1981, I drove a rented Chevrolet to Raleigh, North Carolina, on my way to interview for a teaching job at the School of Design at North Carolina State University. There, on nearby Cox Avenue, I drove past the home and studio of architect Harwell Hamilton Harris, an arrestingly quiet stucco form on a street of slightly run-down student houses. The studio had a well-proportioned simplicity that was unusual in 1981 when architecture hovered on the cusp of Post Modernism.

“If someone can do something so beautiful here in Raleigh,” I thought, “maybe there’s hope that I can, too.”

That same afternoon, I passed by D.H. Hill Library on the N.C. State campus and saw the color-and-light mural by Raleigh artist Joe Cox. That luminous creation also connected me to my new surroundings.

Two hours later I called my wife Judy to say that I thought that we should move to North Carolina.

The studio and work of art I saw on that hot, humid afternoon were but two of hundreds of striking examples of art and architecture borne in North Carolina from 1947 onward. How did these objects come to be in North Carolina? What people made them in a state not known for its modern art?

As it turned out, almost all the architects and artists were outsiders, from Oklahoma, California, and Poland. But for a brief moment, North Carolina seemed to be at the center of the universe.

In 1585, English explorer and artist Captain John White drew the first illustrations of buildings in the New World near the coast of what we now call North Carolina. Captain White’s watercolor drawings portrayed a native village of one-story houses with vaulted roofs, porches, and walls made of Atlantic white cedar. Today we would call these buildings sustainable. Yet to their native builders, they simply made sense. A vestige of this pragmatic approach can be traced throughout the history of architecture in this state.

North Carolina was a relatively poor state until the twentieth century. Its architectural legacy is modest compared to the great mansions and churches of South Carolina and Virginia. But because it was largely a rural state of small land owners, a rich tradition of pragmatic purpose inspired this state’s vernacular structures, including tobacco barns, corncribs, and mill buildings. Architecture in North Carolina is a state of mind more than a style—open, relaxed, and likely to accept new ways of doing things as long as they were practical. One can see that same vernacular today in highway bridges, soybean silos, and barbecue shacks across the state.

It was that state of mind that allowed North Carolinians, I believe, to accept modernism after the Second World War. In 1954, Harwell Hamilton Harris wrote a renowned article entitled “Regionalism and Nationalism in Architecture.” In it, he stated, “A region’s most important resources are its free minds, its imagination, its stake in the future, its energy and, last of all, its climate, its topography, and the particular kind of sticks and stones it has to build with.”

It’s worth remembering the stake in the future and the imagination that the director of the North Carolina State Fair, J.S. Dorton, possessed in 1947

when he commissioned Matthew Nowicki to design a livestock judging arena for his fair. Later known as the J.S. Dorton Arena, the daring structure designed by the Polish-born architect and professor at the School of Design was celebrated worldwide.

It’s worth remembering the free minds of the university faculty and small business owners who commissioned George Matsumoto, James Fitzgibbon, and Milton Small to design simple, low-cost houses that rested like curled leaves on the red clay of the state’s Triangle region and opened their indoors to the fresh air.

It’s also worth reflecting on the energy in mid-century North Carolina that created the first state-supported art museum, the Research Triangle Park, and the consolidated University of North Carolina. The same momentum gave rise to the Greensboro Four who staged the most influential sit-in of the Civil Rights Movement at the then-segregated Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro in February of 1960.

If there were North Carolinians looking for new ways of building at mid-century, the Triangle’s modernist architects were ready to give it to them.

I am still full of wonder at the modern architecture of North Carolina, how it ran like a silver stream between banks that were at times dark and unappreciative. How it was often talked down, ignored, and even blasphemed, and yet it ran clear to the ideals of its founders and was joined by a thousand tributaries flowing onward from past to present and quietly into the future.

And I’m glad that modern architecture is now in the guide books, alongside the plantation houses, churches, and horse barns of an earlier era. Modern designers are compared favorably to previous architects and artisans, including the builders of tobacco barns, throwers of pots, musicians, bricklayers, and cooks.

The need to bring traditional building into the modern era drove the ideas of Matthew Nowicki, George Matsumoto, Harwell Hamilton Harris, and other pioneers of modernism in North Carolina. Social and environmental sustainability now animates the current generation, as well as the need to manage local resources. In other words, modernism changes with the times. But its principles remain the same: invention, respect for tradition, the ability to listen, and a willingness to work outside current myths and fashion.

Two recent buildings now stand a few steps away from the Harris home and studio on Cox Avenue and continue his legacy. A bright and shining addition to Pullen Memorial Baptist Church by architect Ellen Weinstein continues the progressive tradition of its membership, who see themselves as stakeholders of religious freedom and social justice. Next to it stands the Gregg Art Museum, designed by Kenneth Luker and Derek Jones with Phil Freelon. The museum is a model of clarity and restraint in architecture—a luminous volume clad in a species of wood that would have been familiar to the native builders Captain John White met in 1585. And Harris would recognize its elegant proportions and simple form.

With the publication of this book, the modern architecture of North Carolina’s Triangle region leaves its folklore status and becomes part of the critical history of architecture. We are greatly indebted to its author, Victoria Ballard Bell, and to the architects, builders, and clients who made it possible.

8 9

INTRODUCTION

001

Triangle Modern Architecture documents the rich history and cultural significance of design in a region that is one of the most distinctive and exceptional locales on the national map of modern design. Over the last 75 years, the architecture in the Triangle area of North Carolina has grown to creatively combine innovation and technology with the area’s history, unique landscape, and built context.

The philosophical and artistic movement of Modernism arose in the early twentieth century as a rejection of the traditional in favor of the innovative and experimental. In architecture, Modernism emerged from the devastation of World War I as a new language of design intended to meet the needs of urban, industrialized society. Guided by principles emphasizing function over ornamentation and the innovative applications of new technologies, the first generation of European Modernists created unconventional forms using nontraditional materials of steel, glass, and concrete. Modernist architects in the United States merged these principles with new conceptions of urban life to design iconic structures such as New York’s skyscrapers and Chicago’s large horizontal strips of storefront windows. Later generations of architects transformed Modernism’s founding principles into unique expressions appropriate to the people, places, and qualities of very different locations, such as the Triangle area of North Carolina.

Although the area did not commonly come to be known as the Triangle until later, this central region of the state was undergoing its own transformation in the mid-twentieth century. Anchored by three major research universities—Duke University in Durham, the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University (NCSU) in the capital city of Raleigh—the area attracted a highly educated workforce and a diverse array of businesses. In the 1940s, the small city of Raleigh would not have seemed likely to become a showcase of the best examples of modern architecture and design in the United States. However, a confluence of factors positioned the city as a canvas where groundbreaking architects could express the artistic and philosophical principles of Modernism that they customized to the area’s natural beauty and culture known for modesty and grace.

Even now, few people associate the Triangle region with the clean lines and progressive nature of modern architecture, but the area has a strong cultural base of Modernism in its history. The experimental Black Mountain College (1933–1957), located in the mountains of North Carolina, brought many influential artists to the region, including designers from the German Bauhaus school, and acted as an incubator for Modernism in the state.

However, the critical turning point came in 1948, when the newly founded NCSU School of Design, under the visionary leadership of its dean, Henry Kamphoefner, brought cutting-edge designers to the area to create a unique design community influenced by both the local geography and culture and the design principles of modern architecture. Today in the Triangle alone there are approximately 800 modern houses.1 This large collection of Modernist homes

002

003

001 Map of the Triangle region of North Carolina.

002 Josef Albers teaching drawing at the Black Mountain College in the mountains of North Carolina.

Bringing his teaching style of “learning by doing” from his days at the Bauhaus, he was a strong influence at this new school. Black Mountain College strove to teach a holistic view on the arts, not just the professional skills as did the Bauhaus.

003 Josef Albers teaching drawing at the Black Mountain College. He believed in teaching the “whole student,” and that a student should think for themselves rather than being taught what to think. He was one of the most popular teachers there and produced some of his best artwork during this time.

1. Welton, Michael. “Blueprint for a Movement,” Our State, March 2019.

10 11

004

005

006

004 Black Mountain College building across from Lake Eden, NC, 1943.

005 Taylor House, Matthews, NC, 2016, in situ studio.

006 Breuer House (1941)—the Sprinza Weizenblatt Residence, Asheville, North Carolina. Designed by Marcel Breuer, a graduate of the Bauhaus, when he was teaching at the Black Mountain School. This is one of the first Modernist buildings in North Carolina, preceded by the Weyman Memorial Laboratory at the Highlands Museum and Biological Laboratory by Oskar Stonorov, built in the International Style in 1930–31. [Bishir, Catherine W. North Carolina Architecture, UNC Press, 1999] 007 The Hope Valley House, Durham, NC, by Phil Szostak, 2011.

008 The Home Security Life building in Durham, NC, by Milton Small, 1957.

009 Interior of the Home Security Life building in Durham, NC, by Milton Small.

007

is cited as the third largest in the country, comparable to urban centers such as Chicago and Los Angeles.2 This publication showcases the Triangle’s cultural legacy of modern architecture by presenting a selection of its architects and their buildings, past and present. This selection has been made to represent the broad range of talent and diverse approaches, and to represent a common design culture based on regional interpretation of modern principles. Some of the structures they created are long gone, but many others still stand, and more are being created every day. In telling the story of modern architecture in the Triangle, this book aims to increase public appreciation of this heritage, build the case for protecting important landmarks, and give current designers a retrospective from which they can further shape regionally based modern design as they interpret it.

Chapter 1 of this book describe the roots of modern architecture in North Carolina in the founding of the NCSU School of Design and its connection to the Triangle area’s culture, tradition of higher education, and economic development. Chapter 2 showcases a mid-century cohort of local architects who boldly practiced Modernism and helped put the Triangle on the map. Chapter 3 presents a collection of current professionals in the Triangle who are carrying on new iterations of modern ideas, also shaped by the unique characteristics of the region. These architects continue to support the Triangle’s strong historic foundation in architecture while exploring fresh expressions of what modern means today. The architects presented in this book have helped to develop a body of work unique to the Triangle, one that continues to thrive and that we should strive to preserve.

The terms Modernism and modern are not used interchangeably in this text.

Each is used with a distinct meaning and intention. Modernism and Modernist refer to a specific movement in art, architecture, and design that emerged around 1925 in Holland, France, and Germany. This term applies to the architects that came to North Carolina in the mid-twentieth century and are documented in Chapters 1 and 2. Modern is used to mean innovative and up-todate, responding to the present and future, but unlike the term contemporary it also implies the influence of Modernism. The term modern design is open to other influences as well, including new ideas from around the world, the local built context and landscape, building methods, and culture. This term applies to the architects documented in Chapter 3 who are currently practicing in the Triangle area. While these architects all acknowledge the strong influence of Modernism in their work, they make it clear that they are not restricted by it and are open to a broad range of personal inspirations, educational influences, new ideas. They are all inspired by their understanding and appreciation of our local people, this time, and this place.

2. Smart, George. North Carolina Modernist Houses, ncmodernist.org.

008

009 12 13

JON ANDRE CONDORET

001

BORN ALGIERS, ALGERIA, 1934 DIED PITTSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA, 2010 EDUCATION BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ARCHITECTURE, ÉCOLE SPÉCIALE D’ARCHITECTURE, PARIS, 1959 INFLUENCES FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Jon Andre Condoret was born in North Africa, where whitewashed buildings resembling cubist blocks filled the hillsides. Condoret grew up fishing and drawing cartoons in his close-knit Algerian-French community.66 He left Algiers in the 1950s to study architecture in Paris, where he met his wife, Joany Earle Condoret, an American art student. In 1962, the couple moved from Algeria to North Carolina because of the Algerian War of Independence. The move to the U.S was a huge cultural change that thrust Condoret into a new world where he quickly had to learn to speak a new language, but also where his design language found a fertile time and place to grow. He passed the exams for the state architecture license on the first try.

Condoret initially worked for architect Archie Royal Davis before working with City Planning and Architectural Associates. After a few years, Condoret started his own office and designed a large collection of Modernist homes throughout Durham and Chapel Hill. His early life in Algeria and Europe furnished him with a distinct set of Modernist design skills and brought a cosmopolitan, adventurous spirit to his designs that added to the growing collection of innovative architecture in the Triangle. Condoret often said that his ultimate goal was to serve his clients and ensure that he gave them what they wanted.

This responsiveness to the residents of the Triangle demonstrated the localized approach that was not a goal of many early Modernists but became characteristic of the new attitude that was more inclusive of people, place, and precedent.

Although Condoret was not directly connected with the North Carolina State University’s School of Design, he found his own voice and came to a personal understanding of what it meant to design in his own language in the region. He is unusual among Triangle Modern architects because he was not influenced by the teachings and research of Modernism from academia, but rather came to his modern principles through his experiences growing up in Europe and understanding his new home in the South. He also greatly admired the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.67 His design principles came to him naturally through understanding the climate, landscape, materials, and particularities of the Triangle. He also had no preconceived ideas of what architecture or a house should look like in the region, thus freeing himself from stereotypical traditional home and building designs.

One of his later projects was Fearrington Village, a residential development located on a former dairy farm outside of Chapel Hill. While not Modern in language, this project is very much about the North Carolina landscape and engaging the site. There, Condoret created a tranquil balance between a traditional aesthetic, the Modernism principle of open floor plans, and a respect for the surrounding pastoral landscape.

Another example of Condoret’s work is his own house in Chapel Hill, NC, which sits on a wooded site and blends seamlessly with the existing landscape.

Heavy horizontal planes define several rooflines, each at different heights, giving a hierarchy to the activities within. Exposed structure inside reveals and expresses how the house was built. A heavy brick mass forms the fireplace in the core of the house, a design idea used and popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright. Balconies and patios further extend the architecture to the site and blend the threshold between inside and outside.

Perhaps Condoret’s most significant project is the Larson House, built in 1973, which showcases a fearless spirit with canted walls and shifting planes in all dimensions. He considered this his favorite design, which has a different language distinct from other houses of the time.68 Glazing is thoughtfully placed for passive solar qualities as well as for embracing the surrounding natural world. The windows are angled thoughtfully to capture light and direct attention to beautiful areas of the surrounding site. As in Condoret’s own home, a large central fireplace defines the nucleus of the home.

Condoret’s daughter, Arielle Schechter, is a talented architect practicing in Chapel Hill who has continued working in the regional modern approach to architecture. She often worked for her father on projects until his death in 2010.

Condoret’s legacy lives on in his large portfolio of unique custom-designed homes in Chapel Hill and Durham, which exemplify his distinctive Modern language.

002

66. “Jon Condoret, Architect: Algeria September 5, 1934 - USA August 8, 2010 - Memorial Video.” July 24, 2014, Arielle Schechter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=iK2PvUz1JyM 67. Arielle Schechter, 2019.

68. Arielle Schechter, 2019.

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001 The Condoret House, entry, Chapel Hill, NC, 1965, Jon Condoret.

002 The Condoret House, interior, Chapel Hill, NC, 1965, Jon Condoret.

003 The Condoret House, Chapel Hill, NC, 1965, Jon Condoret.

004 The Larson House, Durham, NC, 1973, Jon Condoret.

005 The Larson House, Durham, NC, 1973, Jon Condoret.

006 The Larson House, entry Durham, NC, 1973, Jon Condoret.

003

TURAN DUDA

001

BORN ANKARA, TURKEY, 1953 EDUCATION BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE, NCSU SCHOOL OF DESIGN, 1976 MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE, YALE UNIVERSITY, 1980 INFLUENCES PETER EISENMAN, CESAR PELLI, JAMES STIRLING, FRED KOETTER, DUNCAN STEWART, VINCE FOOTE, JOHN REUER, FRED EICHENBERG, JAY RANDLE

Born in Ankara, Turkey, into an academic family, Turan Duda spent many of his formative years traveling through Europe, experiencing a wide variety of cultures and urban environments, which instilled in him a profound appreciation of and understanding for the role of public space in the architecture of urban environments. Duda earned his undergraduate degree in architecture at NCSU, where he studied under and was influenced by Duncan Stewart, Vince Foote, John Reuer, Fred Eichenberg, and Jay Randle from the College of Design. His time at NCSU was highly informative, with professors who, he noted, “provoked [students] to think and develop our own unique process for designing everything from a chair to the universe.” Duda went on to study at Yale University under James Stirling, Fred Koetter, Peter Eisenman, and Cesar Pelli, who would later become a mentor. At Yale, Duda explains, he was able to genuinely explore ideas about how architecture can be made influential and meaningful.

Upon earning his Master of Architecture from Yale, Duda worked for Pelli, gaining a deep understanding of the skyscraper typology. At Pelli’s office, Duda designed numerous public buildings and spaces. His first assignment was the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center in New York, a glassand-steel public centerpiece for the six-million-square-foot office-building complex. This pivotal project prefigured the focus of his current work, in which he advocates for all large-scale projects to dedicate space for public use. Also while in Pelli’s office, Duda met Jeffrey Paine. After working together for fifteen years, the two left Pelli’s office for Durham and started Duda|Paine Architects in 1997. Now, after twenty years in practice, their work is found throughout the United States and Mexico and has received numerous design awards. Duda is an educator as well, teaching at Yale University, NCSU, and is a frequent speaker and reviewer at architecture schools around the country.

The architecture of Duda|Paine covers a wide range of typologies. For each project, they apply a specific singular approach while adhering to design ideas that are at once local and modern. Every design gains its unique identity and responds to its specific site and local culture. The work also adheres to modern principles, such as a belief that innovative solutions in architecture reside in exploring and challenging the essence of a building’s purpose or mission.

Duda|Paine has completed a number of large-scale projects in North Carolina. Their most notable works include the Talley Student Union in Raleigh, the Gateway Village Technology Center in Charlotte, and the Trent Semans Center for Health Education at Duke University in Durham. These projects have in common a design sensitivity to both the large-scale urban context and the smaller-scale pedestrian experience.

In the Gateway Village Technology Center, public space is given a central design role. The classic courtyard form is fragmented and opened to public access from the street, a simple gesture that invites neighborhood interface.

Exterior facades are clad in red brick, a regional preference that provides continuity and respects the site’s residential neighbors. Within the courtyard, glass and steel reflect the complex’s spirit of activating technology-based work.

The Duke University Faculty Club (2016) project looks at the movement

and patterns of daily use and circulation. This 12,000-square-foot building includes a wide range of uses including recreational spaces, a fitness center, a snack bar, and other relaxation spaces. The wood-structured design uses an articulated spine to give order to the building. Slim, red cedar, vertical slats create a screen around the building expressing the verticality of surrounding pine trees and bringing a seamless path between inside and outside. Pine harvested from the adjacent Duke Forest covers the entry wall while a clear pressure-treated pine is used for shade structures both horizontally and vertically throughout the building.

The public-focused Talley Student Union (2015) on NCSU’s campus is intended specifically for the busy college student looking for a space to socialize, rest, or study. The building creates a landmark and crossroad for the campus, a place where students can collect from all areas of the university. Duda studied pedestrian patterns and responded with an interactive and interdisciplinary design that met a need for NCSU’s identity. It is a “place-making” design that centralizes and organizes students coming from many different places. There are flexible spaces as well as structured formal spaces like the theater. Modern form, regional materials, and local attitudes come together to create a building that responds equally to context and climate. This Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver-certified building redefines spatially what a student center means to individual students while creating a campus crossroads of iconic public spaces.

Turan Duda believes passionately about place-making and the important role that architects hold in inspiring the future. He also believes in the importance of travel and experiencing the world to better educate not only ourselves but also to bring these experiences back to the communities we live in to inspire others.

Cited: Duda, Turan. “Triangle Modern Architecture.” Interview at seminar taught by Bryan Bell, North Carolina State University, College of Design, February 2017.

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