American Tobacco Complex: Thick description

The American Tobacco Complex occupies a trapezoidal area with a north-south axis between
Pettigrew and Willard Streets. The complex is fortress-like, detached from its surroundings. The
heavy, brick warehouses are closely packed along its circumference creating a continuous, four
to five stories high boundary. Thin, claustrophobic corridors open between the buildings
reluctantly allowing eventual intrusion from the outside. The buildings of the complex are all
introverted - opening only to the inside courtyard they envelop. Entryways into the structures on
the circumference are not articulated clearly enough to direct the flow of people effectively.
Originally ‘back doors’, they were inconspicuous for delivery drop-offs. The main pedestrian
gateway, announced in big letters--“American Tobacco”--opens to the Durham Freeway. The
entrance fails in its purpose. The cars zipping by provide no potential users for the complex.

The complex’s separateness is emphasized by the vast open spaces around it. To the north,
Pettigrew Street, the railway and the Downtown Loop create a void of 50 meters. Similarly, the
complex is severed from the city to the south by Willard Street and the Durham Freeway. There
is a parking lot to the east and a stretch of grass to the west (between the complex and the
Performing Arts Center). The historic district is surrounded by a moat of pedestrian-unfriendly
space. Guards make sure nobody who does not belong wanders around the interior of the
complex. Inside, the geometric regularity of the exterior of the complex gives way to a new
landscape of sensory excitement. The visitor is engaged in three different ways: 1. the
unexpected and rich assortments of materials, 2. dramatic spatial irregularity and geometric
surprises, and 3. the feeling of aesthetic satisfaction in partaking in a successfully reused space.

Emblematic of the past is the old brick - the primary building material of the complex - it
pulsates with deep shades of red, varied by time as well as by its coal kiln production. As a
visitor explores the complex she notices instances of architectural surgery - the old buildings
have new scars. There is the aged cement paving - yellowed and cracked, wooden beams with
splinters, and a variety of iron and steel members (some rusting, some painted). The complex is
not ashamed of its structure. Nuts and bolts protrude everywhere. Raw industrial beams support
roofs and floors. Enigmatic pipes snake their way through walls to the outside creating
sculptures. Cables crawl on the walls. Varying ground levels across the area allow for an
adventurous pedestrian landscape with a variety of stairs, ramps, cantilevered pathways, ad hoc
bridges, and ground fissures. An artificial river cascades from the northern ‘highland’ of the
tobacco complex to the low area in the south. The complex is a site of deconstruction and
reconstruction. The orchestrated contrasts in materials and violent somatic intrusions (punctures,
grips, hooks etc) emphasize the dialogue between the new and the old. In emphasizing that
polarity the complex glorifies its past.