A constant thread that ties all of the visual images together when one visits the American Tobacco Historic District is the comparison of the old with the new.

One of my favorite images is that of the nineteenth century castle-like roof line of the Hill Building set against a backdrop of the ultra-modern, blue office building which features a contemporary pyramid peak towering above Durham's skyline.

Contrasts such as this can be found in so many aspects of this mammoth project. It is the intent of the developers to retain the historical character of this campus, though this will in some ways contrast with modernizing the facilities for 21st century usage. The intent is that changes might in some ways contrast with the history of the campus, not conflict with it.

As I walk through each week observing the actual work in progress, I become more and more fascinated with the work methods and tools. State of the art equipment and materials are employed to rehabilitate these buildings. Heavy machinery abounds throughout the work site. The sound of diesel engines in generators and compressors is only occasionally overshadowed by the blast from the bull horn at noon.

From giant cranes to fork lifts, sandblasting equipment to cement pumping equipment, right on down to fine electronic control devices for air conditioning equipment and new elevators, so much of the rehabilitation is utilizing technology that is probably actually changing as this project unfolds.

Yet, since this is a historical rehabilitation, so much that is being rehabilitated is done with the tools and methods that have not changed in centuries. Hammers, not pneumatic nail drivers, are nailing the original type tongue and grove flooring into place.

Old fashioned, square, carpenter's pencils are marking boards measured with traditional measuring tapes. The pencil marks follow the edges of traditional carpenter's squares.

This one million square feet of floor space is enclosed by brick walls. Brick construction has been around for how many centuries?

Brick masons on the job site are slinging "mud" with a trowel just like the one my grandfather used, just like the ones used for centuries.

I think it worthwhile to pause and reflect that while so much is accomplished with so much new and highly sophisticated equipment, so much is also accomplished with the same type of hand tools used to create these buildings when construction began in 1874.

So the point can be made again, this project will preserve a major piece of history, in many ways with methods and tools that themselves have a historical background.