Commune Design Transforms a 1960s Bank into The Durham Hotel in North Carolina.

LA-based studio Commune Design have recently transformed an old bank in North Carolina into a mid-century modern hotel. With the Southern city’s iconic Home Savings Bank sitting as an idle building in the downtown district, the developers at The Gentian Group decided to breathe new life into the six-storey structure from the 60s. Situated on a bustling strip – across from a public square and next to the US Post Office – the building is reintroduced as The Durham Hotel. A treasure for the creative community, the hotel offers a few nostalgic elements which survived the transformation.

At the entrance, a shoeshine station serves guests and a newsstand offers both niche publications and local indie music on vinyl records. Collaborations with local enterprises appear throughout the hotel’s 53 rooms and penthouse suite. The dining area sits beneath a double storey space wrapped with suites and meeting rooms on a curvilinear mezzanine. On the rooftop, an open-air terrace is the ideal spot for morning yoga sessions and evening movie screenings while the bar serves cocktail with a view over the city.

See more projects by  Commune Design on Yellowtrace. 

[Images courtesy of Commune Design. Photography by Spencer Lowell.]