Durham, a wonderful place to live

Duke University is located in Durham, North Carolina, one of three cities—Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh—that form North Carolina’s famed Research Triangle. Each of the cities is home to a major research university. The triangle area, with a combined triangle-wide population of more than a million, boasts the largest per capita PhD population in the United States.

Durham is a funky town with lots of personality. Housing options are plentiful and affordable—from new apartment complexes to renovated mill village houses to turn-of-the-twentieth-century neighborhoods with wonderful old houses to condominums. Downtown Durham has undergone major renovation, and many people—especially young professionals and retired folks—are making homes in loft apartments, old cotton and tobacco warehouses, revamped commercial buildings, and new condomiums. Restaurants are popping up and making a lively nighttime scene throughout the downtown area.

The population is ethnically diverse and politically lively. Civic engagement is high.

Durham is an intellectual center, home to writers, dancers, musicians, visual artists, potters, filmmakers, scientists, computer wizards, architects, political activists—all sorts of creative types. The National Humanities Center, a place of long-term retreat for scholars from all over the US, adds another element to the conversation in the area.

Durham is well known as a center for the performing arts—the American Dance Festival and the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival are both headquartered in Durham. The city hosts ten annual music and dance celebrations. The Bull Durham Blues Festival lights up the city with lively jazz every fall; the American Dance Festival brings world-class dance companies and hundreds of dance students for six weeks in the summer; the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival makes Durham home, and the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival populates Durham with film makers and film buffs each spring.

Cultural and historic sites and events abound. History buffs have a field day in the area—exploring Durham's rich African-American history and the cultural history of the early 1900s.

Art galleries dot the city; Duke's new Nasher Museum of Art is a local treasure.

Independent bookstores, each with its own personality and niche, are all over town.

And the every-Saturday Farmers' Market in downtown Durham is a happening place; be there or be square. It jump-starts many a Durhamite's Saturday morning.

Durham is the gourmet food capital of NC and by most accounts has the best assortment of restaurants between DC and Atlanta. The city has become a foodie destination with numerous restaurants receiving national attention.

Durham is the home of Durham Bulls baseball. The baseball stadium in downtown Durham is bordered by the American Tobacco Campus, which houses restaurants of every stripe for all-season enjoyment. The campus, astride a small canal, is especially fun when summer produces outdoor restaurants and live music on the lawn.

Parks and sports facilities are plentiful, both on campus and in town. Duke Forest is a wonderful spot to bike and hike.

Temperatures are moderate throughout the year; Durham residents boat, canoe, skate, bicycle, walk, play tennis and golf year round. Durham sits halfway between the North Carolina coast and the Blue Ridge Mountains—about three hours drive to each.

For more of Durham's flavor, see the law school's video about Durham: Decidedly Durham