2014 | Aloft Durham Downtown | Durham, NC
The Aloft Durham Downtown is a 120-room boutique hotel adjacent to the Durham Performing Arts Center. The six story, 104,000-square-foot building includes a conference center, cocktail lounge, kitchen and servery, and an outdoor pool.
Szostak Design collaborated with the Aloft team to develop a chic, contemporary design that compliments the architecture of the surrounding area. Since the hotel sits directly against DPAC it was critical that the new building work with the theater, while still maintaining its own identity.
Clad with alternating vertical bands of zinc panels on the upper floors, the design seeks to break up the repetitive nature of most hotel projects while the black brick base calls out to the traditional material found in the surrounding historic structures. The lighted curve on the roof is highly visible and clearly identifies the hotel. Facing the large grassy park between the hotel and the American Tobacco Campus, the entry is highlighted by the colorful stripes above the second floor pool and the traditional Aloft fireplace on the exterior terrace.
Photography by Jim Sink Photography