Only eight homes remain up for grabs at Duke's Trinity Heights Homesites. Twenty-six of the 37 total units in the development of employee housing adjoining East Campus have been sold or are under contract, and potential homeowners have put a flag on another three. That leaves three lots for a single-family home and five townhouse units available for prospective buyers.
Scarcity is always a nice thing.
The development was started to increase the number of affordable houses close to campus for Duke employees while also letting Duke mesh with the established neighborhood beside it. The craftsman and bungalow-style detached homes were designed to fit in architecturally with the surrounding neighborhood, drawing praise from the Historic Preservation Society of Durham, which recognized the project with its George and Mary Pyne Historic Preservation Award for the year 2000, and the Durham Orange Home Builders Association, which awarded a gold medal in its Fall 2000 Parade of Homes to the Davison model house on Onslow Street. While most of the single-family houses and townhouses are still under construction, the first five employees have moved into their new homes, Potter said. Sabrina Lamar, a physical therapist with the ergonomics program, says she'll be glad when the construction phase is completed in Trinity Heights. She and her husband closed on their Berkley home, the mid-size Davison model, on Dec. 22 and moved in New Year's weekend.