The Cottages of Durham
Durham, New Hampshire

The Cottages of Durham located in Durham, New Hampshire is a new collegiate community built by Birmingham, Alabama based Capstone Collegiate Communities, LLC, also known as “C3”. The community is based on the "new urbanism" style which has become a staple for many Capstone communities. I always enjoy going into a new community and looking at it as a whole then breaking it into many parts that make up the whole. Its a joy to walk around a community to see how it is planned, see how the resident walks and interacts with the architecture and how the human gives scale to the design, to see how a community comes to life in the morning as the students wake up and make there way to the bus stop or use the amenities. I often have referred to the "Breath" of a community as I did last year in a Rosemary Beach post where I described how the residents give life to a community by moving in and out of homes, buildings, crossing streets, using common areas, exercising, shopping, and such. This is how you know if a community is a success. A community comes to life by its very residents and and its design allows it to function healthy and properly for the benefit of all. Go a step further and then you notice very small things such as the contrasting colors of facades, the landscape, the decorative street lights, the granite curbs, all very small details but very large to the addition of the whole. The details are in my opinion the essence of architecture and a community. Its the small things that give that certain place character and a "sense of place". Its those small touches that make the community belong to a region and culture.