Growing Charleston: Preserving History, Building the Future

An architect and a preservationist discuss Charleston's historic district and lift the curtain on how new buildings are designed and approved.
In November 2023, the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art hosted the national conference Enduring Places. For three days, 225 participants from around the country gathered in Charleston, South Carolina and engaged in a diverse offering of talks, panel discussions, working sessions, and tours focused on three themes: craftsmanship, preservation, and sustainability.
The conference's second breakout session focused on Charleston’s Historic District and the process of how historic designs are reviewed and approved by the city’s Board of Architectural Review. Highlighted case studies included three types of buildings: traditional, transitional, and modern, that have gone through the historic review process.
About the Series:
From April to June 2024, the ICAA will be releasing all of the recordings from Enduring Places. Sign up for the ICAA's biweekly newsletter, World of Classicism, to be notified when other installments are released in the coming weeks: bit.ly/ICAAemails
About the Speakers:
Gary L. Brewer is a former partner at Robert A.M. Stern Architects, leading the design of institutional, hospitality, and residential projects. His work includes the Spangler Center, complementing McKim, Mead & White’s 1920s master plan for the Harvard Business School campus; and a hotel, conference center, and golf clubhouse on Kiawah Island in South Carolina. He has designed single-family houses in such locations as Martha’s Vineyard, MA; Westport and Wilton, CT; East Quogue, NY; Virginia Beach, VA; Charleston, SC; and Seaside, FL. He is currently working on two new projects in Charleston: a mixed-use building that involves the restoration of a historic train shed and repurposing notable Charleston houses; and the first senior living building located on famed King Street.
Gary has lectured extensively on traditional house design, the history of pattern-book houses, and New York City clubs, and is a co-author of the recently released monograph, Houses: Robert A.M. Stern Architects (The Monacelli Press, 2021). He is a fellow emeritus and former board member of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art and former co-chair of the Classicist Committee.
Winslow Hastie is President & CEO of Historic Charleston Foundation, a non-profit organization that champions the historic authenticity, cultural character and livability of the Charleston region through advocacy, stewardship and community engagement. Hastie began his career in San Francisco as a preservation consultant at Carey & Co. Architecture, and as an urban planner and preservation specialist at the City of San Francisco Planning Department. A native of Charleston, Hastie returned to his roots as the Chief Preservation Officer at Historic Charleston Foundation. Hastie was chosen to lead the Foundation as President & CEO, ushering in a new era of heightened advocacy engagement and strategic programming to address preservation, livability and growth issues facing the Charleston region. He holds a Master’s degree in Historic Preservation from the University of Georgia and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of the South at Sewanee.
SPONSORS
The ICAA is very grateful to John F.W. Rogers for generously making this program possible along with our supporters:
Classical American Homes Preservation Trust
Historic Charleston Foundation
Oliveri Millworks
Traditional Building
Schafer Buccellato Architects
CONTRIBUTING SPONSORS
A Classical Studio, Inc.
Benedictine College
Gaston & Wyatt
Goodwin Classic Homes
Jared Goss
Historical Concepts
ICAA Northern California Chapter
Leeds Custom Design and Seabreeze Building
Anne Kriken Mann
John B. Murray & Elizabeth Brooke Murray
Poggenpohl
Reis Contracting
Skurman Architects
Peter J. Talty
Tucker & Marks
The Urban Electric Co.
Vallette & Russell Windham
LECTURE SPONSORS
Ankie & Fran Barnes
Stan Dixon
Marsha & David Dowler
Barbara Eberlein
Kirk Henckels
Jeff Allen Landscape Architecture, LLC
Anne Lazar
Marmi Stone
Suzanne R. Santry
Tammy Connor Interior Design
Urban Design Associates
Whitlock Builders
Bunny Williams
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
Russell Windham, Chair
Ankie Barnes
Andrew Cogar
Richard Economakis
Ray Gindroz
Alexa Hampton
Thomas Lloyd
Michael Mesko
Eric Osth
Suzanne Santry
IN COLLABORATION WITH ICAA NATIONAL OFFICE STAFF
Peter Lyden, President
Caroline Slaten, Vice President, Development
Julia Sucher, Manager, Development & Special Events
Lexi Hoglund, Assistant, Development and Office of the President

[@juliechs8336]

How many Air BnB's are downtown? One, Two thousand? No one addresses it, why?

[@Nostalg1a]

BnB's seem to be a natural thing were there attractive places. There are only two ways to fight it, government limitations on the number of them or build more.

[@DirMichaelDavid]

sad that they're ruining a great place with post modernist junk

[@StereoSpace]

What is killing cities is not architecture. It is high crime, high taxes, and poor services (dirty streets and sidewalks, bad roads, dirty and unsafe mass transit). The crime and dirt are the worst offenders, and people will rightly avoid those cities. That said, architectural planning certainly has a place, but will serve no purpose if the city is not safe and clean.

[@MrOliverwoods]

Couple of points. Dirty streets are the product of use. Like are gardener’s hands. High taxes are the product of the high cost of residence. Which means people are competing to live there. Millions of people take mass transit daily with a lesser crime rate than an NFL game. Quit watching Fox and visit Charleston.

[@StereoSpace]

@@MrOliverwoods I have visited Charleston. And dirty streets and crime are not just a product of use, they're a product of neglect, just like a dirty house. It's not OK. Places like Tampa and San Diego gets lots of use, and they're not dirty and crime ridden. Want to people to visit and live in your city? Keep it clean and safe.

[@MrOliverwoods]

@@StereoSpace Charleston’s population has risen +25% for three decades. What did Yogi say “no one goes there, it’s too crowded.” San Diego is 81st in the US rating for cities. There isn’t a SC city in the top 100.

[@StereoSpace]

@@MrOliverwoods I was talking about why people aren't going to cities, and what is killing them in general. You have contorted that observation into some kind of attack on Charleston. How about you climb down off your war horse and read what I wrote, instead of what you imagine I was saying?

[@MrOliverwoods]

@@StereoSpace you are talking about what you don’t like when you visit and this video is about preserving history and building the future. Did you visit Charleston to see the historic character of the city ? This is about what’s the best way to build out Charleston to preserve its character, not what makes it suck.