Today a Charleston City official informed us that we would not be able to build our dome on the fountain in Marion Square.
Here are the details…
We went through the right process to get everything approved. We kept some Committee officials informed through the entire process by meeting with them on many different occasions during the design process. When we informed the Committee officials that we wanted to incorporate our design onto the Marion Square Fountain we were informed that it would be fine and that we would have to take into consideration how we would protect the upper basin of the fountain (Due to the loads applied). We fine tuned our design and presented our design to Charleston Design Review Committee and they gave us the go ahead on the project, the last thing we were thinking was that some how The Washington Light Infantry (WLI) would not approve this. The WLI officially owns Marion Square, therefore giving them the right to dictate if the Dome/Bridge structure is safe to use for 2 weeks.
What to do now you might ask? Well, now we move forward! We pick up broken pieces and lash them back together.
We learn from our mistakes and we continue inventing something completely new and exciting out of one of the hardest materials to work with, bamboo.
We pick a new cite location: The Cistern Yard?
We fix our problems with the dome.
And we finish the Bridge so we can see if this masterpiece will really work.
Keep up the good work Studio V. Is the fountain at John St. and Meeting St available for being spanned!?
Paul – Your positive attitude is amazing. Thanks for sharing the love and optimism…Y’all are creating a truly beautiful work of art/architecture.