charleston charrette

Sorry I've been kind of slack on posting / beginning to post- this will be my first of many, I hope! Last week I was in Charleston with a few people from the firm I work for, as well as a few from another firm we collaborate with a lot. We have a really great alliance with another firm, also with several offices around the country- and internationally, I've recently discovered. It's really interesting to get to know the people I work with, as well as the people we work closely with- two birds / one stone situation, if you will.

Either way, we had a design charrette in Charleston, SC last week. Basically, the client- a developer with some pretty valuable land on Johns Island- is looking for a group to help him come up with a product for a developement / series of developments he's looking to build. I'd never been down there before, and have only worked with this company for a few weeks, so I was pretty intimidated. We were working on the master planning and architectural design work for a few different products- some flats, some condo's, some townhomes, and some village / community use. Everything was designed with the attempt at keeping that Johns Island vernacular- I think they described it as "well-proportioned, modestly appointed," all with a really coastal / georgian / colonial feel to it. Hard to describe, but when you see it, you know.




We were working out of this guy's sales center- one of the previously designed / built units- and we kind of blew in like a storm. We made a huge mess- probably went through a dozen rolls of trace- but in the end, accomplished a huge amount of work for just under a week. It was an amazing trip- even though we just graduated recently, and likewise started working within the last year, it was great to be able to soak it all in- the personalities & skills of the people I work for.