Context and Exigency:
The Duke Belt Line (rail corridor) dates to Brodie Duke, the oldest son of tobacco magnate Washington Duke, who built it in 1892 to connect the Duke cigarette factory with the city’s main rail line. Norfolk Southern shuttered the rail line in the early 1990s – and the city and county has shown interest in acquiring it since 2001, when it was included in the Durham Trails and Greenways Master Plan.
The imagined Duke Beltine Trail as an urban greenway makes use (repurposes) the inactive rail corridor that encircles downtown Durham. This stretches about 2 miles (between Blackwell St. and Avondale Drive). For years, local governments, local citizens,and advocacy / conservancy organizations have dreamt of using this corridors for trails, mass transit, or a combination of both – rail-trails or a ‘rails with trails’. The hope is that NCDOT can one day ‘railbank’ the corridors, i.e. protect them from future encroachment. Until now, city funding for purchase of the roughly 18 acres of corridor, owned by Northern Southern railroad has been unachievable, with negotiations between the city of Durham and Northern Souther stalled. The city first entered into negotiations for the land in 2005. As of late 2014, $2,000,000 from a 2005 Federal appropriation was still available to the City of Durham for use in corridor preservation. Private discussions between Norfolk-Southern, NCDOT and Durham were held during the 2011-13 period but nothing has been reported to indicate that the parties are close to a sale. Federal recision of these older appropriations was becoming more likely. Which is why the Conservation Fund in 2017, a national environmental nonprofit with a North Carolina office – agreed to buy the land while a variety of funding is gathered to cover the costs of turning the overgrown railroad into an inner-city greenway fit for bikes and pedestrians. The cost was $7.1 million, with ownership held by the conservancy.
Nascent Brand Opportunity (Duke Beltline Trail)
If you build it, and promote it
Some residents and advocates imagine Durham’s very own “High-line Park” downtown greenway as a a possibility.
[Speaking of the land purchase ]“I think it is a game changer for downtown Durham,” said David Proper, an urban program director for the Conservation Fund. “This is an opportunity to create an 18-acre linear park – a truly significant expanse of urban green space that is not just a connection to other trails but to neighborhoods as well.” The Conservation Fund’s purchase is pivotal first step for the project to get off the ground, said Geoff Durham, president and CEO of the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce, which is helping to raise money for the Belt Line. “The reality is this is a project that is 15, 20 years in the making, and it’s no secret how city leaders have been desirous of acquiring this rail line,” he said. “The fact that the Conservation Fund is now in ownership of the land is a tremendously huge first step.”
Thinking bigger – the systems level
In September 2014 Durham received a $222,000 TIGER grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop a Master Plan for the Duke Beltline. Preparation (master plan) began in June 2015.
The Belt Line is attractive because of its central location between downtown and north Durham neighborhoods, said Dale McKeel, the bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for the city. “This trail could provide an important link in the transportation system by providing a way for people to walk and bike to downtown Durham from areas north and east of downtown,” he said. “It also connects to other greenways in the system, such as the Ellerbe Creek Greenway, the American Tobacco Trail, and it will connect to our Amtrak station, the Durham bus station and the future light rail system.” The planning committee is guiding consultants and studying successful greenways such as Greensboro’s Downtown Greenway and the Atlanta BeltLine.
Users and stakeholders
Ultimately, any aspiration (speculative or and real) is a conversation among stakeholders. To make a valuable contribution, designers will need to understand the “situation” from a systems level, while maintaining the perspective, scale, and needs of the individual users (scenarios, persona, etc). Focus, don’t get ‘lost’ in the urban scale plan 30,000 ft view – for our purpose over the next two weeks. Your mission: to imagine (concept), propose, visualize.
(Suggested) design opportunities
- Branding: The to-date non-existent big “brand” for the Duke Beltline Trail. How does the brand / marker, etc. situate a “kit of parts” approach – brand system. Similar but different parts, as a form language – referencing present history and present (learnable brand system).
- Interaction / branding: Duke Beltline trail, and all its creative opportunity activity-based offshoots for mobility, recreation, downtown events (such as distance racing, festivals, Public Art strategies – systems, etc.), wayfinding, etc – as a brand.
- Service Design – Systems Mapping. Reveal, Relink, Restore, Rejunvenate, Reconnect…tells the user story, journey. How is the “system” conveyed, and for what or whose need / use / interest? Stakeholder maps, etc.
Starter Research / Resources
Duke Beltline Trail Master Plan
What it will take to turn the Duke Belt Line into a downtown Durham greenway
the Conservation Fund of North Carolina paid $7.1 million for Duke Belt Line
Duke Beltine, Preservation Durham
Duke Beltline taking ‘baby steps’ to becoming a greenway
Greensboro Greenway, Public Art Strategies
GD301_Branding, Interaction, Service Design 