The Durham hotel , Durham, North Carolina

Durham finally has a destination-worthy hotel. Tasked with designing the Durham, Los Angeles–based firm Commune drew inspiration from the building’s previous life as the Home Savings Bank, the nearby Black Mountain College in Asheville, and midcentury designers such as Charles Eames, Albert Frey, and Arne Jacobsen. Inside, boldly colored rooms and suites are furnished with custom-designed furniture and blankets by Raleigh Denim, while the restaurant, led by award-winning chef Andrea Reusing, features soaring ceilings and hanging lights designed as a nod to Yoshiro Taniguchi’s chandeliers in Tokyo’s Hotel Okura.



When it comes to the overall design, the hotel is keeping its plans closely guarded. The building itself is known as the Home Savings Bank building, a mid-century modern classic built in the late 1960s. A major feature of the building is the view from its roof, which Reusing explains is unique in the city for its height and placement. "It's really magnificent," she says. With the construction coming together, Reusing shares more details about the 100-seat roof concept, which will feature a mix of indoor and outdoor space. "Part of it will be [year-round]," she explains. "There's all aspects of what you think of as 'rooftop.' There's indoor, then there's outdoor, covered, heated, and then there's [a] totally open-to-nature outdoor balcony around the edge. It's all phases of rooftop.