Clemson University has abandoned a vacant lot in a historic Charleston residential neighborhood as the site to build an architecture school, and will pay $5.1 million for a different property on the more commercial Meeting Street for the new facility.
Last year, Clemson announced that it would build a $7 million modern building as a permanent home for its Charleston architecture program, which has been in Charleston since 1988. The site was in the middle of a block of George Street in the historic Ansonborough District.
While the lot given to Clemson by the city of Charleston was vacant, most of the structures on the street were historic houses in use as residences.
In July 2005, when the city and Clemson officials announced the plans for the new school, neighbors already had mobilized to protest the plan. There followed a year of bitter opposition by residents.
On Monday, Clemson trustees voted to purchase property at 292-296 Meeting Street, at the corner of George and Meeting Streets. The property currently has a 5,600-square-foot brick building and a two-story wooden “single house” of 2,350 square feet. The Clemson University Foundation will purchase the property for the asking price of $5.6 million and sell it to the state university for the appraised value of $5.1 million.
The change of plans marks the end of a bitter fight between the university and the neighborhood .
“I can’t believe the way Clemson officials conducted themselves,” said Albert Weinrich, an electrical engineer who lives at 1 George Street. “They didn’t understand Charleston, its culture or its architectural heritage. It was like they were from another planet.”
Weinrich said the modern glass structure that had been planned for the school had nothing in common with the surroundings of a neighborhood that prizes its historic character.
Robin Denny, Clemson’s spokeswoman, said the new site was selected in part because of the community opposition to the original site. Plus, she said, the commercial Meeting Street site will offer better visibility for the architecture school. And the lot is larger and will better accommodate the needs of the school, she said.
Weinrich said he believes the new location will damp opposition from neighbors of the original site, “if they do a reasonable design, appropriate for Charleston in size, mass and style.”
The new site is about half a block from the original site.
“The city expects that Clemson will build something excellent,” said Michael Maher, director of the Charleston Civic Design Center. He did not know any details of Clemson’s plans for the new site.
Plans to construct the architecture school were made with great fanfare last year, including the news of a $1 million gift from the estate of Countess Alicia Spaulding Paolozzi, a founder of Charleston’s Spoleto Festival, and the gift of the property from Charleston.
Mayor Joe Riley said last year that the property he was conveying to Clemson was an ideal location for the architecture school.
“The dear people outside don’t yet understand that, but they will,” he said.
Riley could not be reached for comment on Monday.
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