Good morning and happy Martin Luther King Day!
Dating back to the fall of 2010, Clemson University has had a profound impact on the landscape of Charleston as we know it today. 30 semesters of Design + Build studios at the Clemson Architecture Center Charleston (CACC) have yielded dozens of structures across the city. Every project has been fully designed and constructed by Clemson students and faculty. Ranging from pavilions to bridges, shelters, seating solutions, gazebos, and even mobile structures, each project meets a specific need in the community. Today they stand as a reminder of Clemson’s legacy in the Charleston area, and serve as inspiration for current CACC students.
This past Friday, students in the Design + Build studio, including myself, visited four former Clemson projects. David Pastre, principal lecturer and director of the CACC, as well as coordinator of the Design + Build studio, selected these four structures in order to cast vision for the studio’s current project: a pavilion located at James Island’s Plymouth Park (to be completed by May 1).
The first former CACC project visited was a shaded seating device, constructed at the Corrine Jones Playground the fall of 2011. This structure was designed as a much-needed seating solution for parents watching their kids on the playground, and doubles as a grandstand for tennis match spectators. Its twisted metal awning strategically responds to the sun at different times of day.
Nearby stands the CACC’s community garden pavilion. This structure employs different means of modular and eco-friendly architecture to engage the surrounding community. Today, it serves as a useful gathering center for gardeners and park visitors alike.
Next, we toured the Butterfly Book Nook, constructed in the spring of 2018. The Nook engages a seemingly useless small space, creating a cozy environment that celebrates the vanishing yet invaluable pursuit of reading. This project was meant to facilitate community gathering by giving locals an opportunity to take ownership of the structure as well as the reading garden that surrounds it.
From there, the group visited a farmer’s market kiosk structure built in the fall of 2019 at the William Enston Homes site. This project drew from the history of the surrounding homes and incorperated modular elements to create a versatile space for all sorts of uses. Like the Corrine Jones Pavilion, it also served an adjacent community garden.
Finally, the group went to see an educational pavilion constructed across Romney Street from an elementary school. This unique and versatile structure tripled as an outdoor classroom, a farmer’s market kiosk, and a community garden center.
Before touring the four former CACC projects, our studio met with the City of Charleston Parks Department to discuss the Plymouth Park Pavilion project. Jason Kronsburg, Director of Parks, emphasized that in order for a project to be successful, you needed community buy-in. This means that the architect needs to demonstrate how their structure will be an enhancement or solution to something that is of importance in the community.
Professor Pastre knew what he was doing when he took our studio to visit these four structures following the meeting. There is a clear and common thread that ties these projects together. In their own unique way, each one is meeting a community need, and will elevate the quality of life for locals in the area for years to come. Inspired by these CACC projects of the past, it is our hope that the Spring 2025 Design + Build studio will produce a structure that follows in their footsteps.
