As some of you may know, Studio V has been working on many of the past projects that needed a little of attention. Well, that’s all over now and it’s time to get started on what we came here to do! On Wednesday January 22nd, my fellow colleagues and I went out and met on our new project, The West Ashley Greenway. We all gathered near the mile one marker just across from the St. Andrews Elementary school. From there we went on to meet with our new clients from the Charleston Parks Conservancy. We had the pleasure to meet with Jim Martin, Harry Lesesne, and Leslie Wade in which they talked more about what the Conservancy is about. From my understanding the Charleston Parks Conservancy is a non-profit organization that works along with the city of Charleston. But, in a deeper standpoint, the conservancy helps to do things that the city cannot financially. They started as an opportunity for the city to raise money outside of the tax dollars that they already had. Also, they focus on building a special bond with the community that the city just may not have time to do.
With all that being said, where is the relationship in all this? In my eyes the conservancy couldn’t be able to tell the difference between my colleagues and I from the last group that was here last year. They probably just view us as another group of students here to gain a grade and move on. But that is not the case! And they won’t know that until we build a relationship with them. That was the most important thing that I got out of our meeting. The importance of a relationship. They need to know that they can put the greenway in our hands, and we be able to exceed or at least meet the standards that was set before us. Without a relationship between us, they won’t trust us… the community won’t trust us… and I don’t even know if we will be able to trust ourselves. Were we challenged yesterday to help develop a greenway? Yes, of course. But, if you read between the lines and think deeper on what they were trying to tell us, they were really challenging us as a group to build a relationship with not only them, but the community as well. We need to prove to them that we won’t just go putting things here, there and everywhere, but that we will take into consideration what Charleston is as a place and what would help to benefit the city. That’s exactly what we’re going to do! And EXCEED standards!
