Today in studio we finished assembling the new dividing wall in our space in the Cigar Factory located on East Bay St. in Charleston, SC. The wall was originally crafted as a facade light study for the original Clemson Design Center in Charleston, which made it through most stages of the design and planning stages, but the project was ultimately terminated by the community. The mock up was done 6 years ago and after its short lived appearance in Lee III in Clemson it was broken down to be disposed of. Thankfully CAC.C’s very own Dave Pastre and Ray Huff had the foresight to keep the broken pieces in hopes of a future for it.
Six years have passed since the wall was broken down, and today May 2nd, 2018 it was rebuilt in its new home near the kitchen of the CAC.C. It’s purpose being to serve as a divider from the kitchen and the soon to be Masters in Resilient Urban Design studio,which is coming in the fall.
The members of Studio V designed and constructed a steel frame that holds the broken pieces together and upright to keep the wall in place. It consists of a welded metal base and L brackets that run up the sides. The wall is tied into the L brackets by metal tabs, and the entire thing is bolted into the floor as well as the ceiling. Positioning the pieces was extremely tedious as there was not much of a tolerance in the fit and the wall all together is close to 800 pounds. It took a group effort by the studio, Professor Pastre, and Professor Huff in order to get everything fit together in place.
We chose to paint the wall white to fit in with the general aesthetic that the CAC.C has, but then painted where the wall was broken orange to reveal a subtle detail about the wall’s history and construction. Now completed the orange is not overly apparent and can really only be seen up close, but is the final detail to complete our final project of the semester.
