Liollio Joins SC Aquarium for MLK Jr. Day of Service

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, Liollio participated in the South Carolina Aquarium's Litter Sweep and Food Drive at Harmon Field in Charleston on Monday. This event aimed to clean up the roadsides along the Gadsden Creek marsh, helping prevent trash from polluting the Ashley River. We are honored to contribute in keeping our community clean.

A special thank you to the South Carolina Aquarium for organizing this impactful event and to The Citadel Near Center for Climate Studies, Charleston Parks Conservancy, Kids Teaching Flood Resilience, Carolina Ocean Alliance, and The MARSH Project for partnering in this environmental initiative.

Honoring the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Liollio observes Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, January 20, 2025. This is a day for honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., giving back to our community, and observing the holiday in a way that is meaningful.  MLK Day is the only federal holiday designated as a National Day of Service, to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities, as we celebrate and carry forward Dr. King’s great legacy.

For more info, visit: https: americorps.gov/serve/volunteer/mlk-day
For information regarding MLK day events: ywcagc.org/mlk-celebration.html

LIOLLIO WELCOMES NEW TEAM MEMBERS

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Liollio is happy to announce the addition of four new team members to our studio! We are thrilled to welcome Madison Koeman as Business Development Coordinator and Gauge Bethea, Navya Tummala, and William Scott as Architectural Designers. Welcome to the studiollio new team members!

AIA South Carolina Awards Reflection: Exceptional Projects & Visionary Clients

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In this time of reflection and celebration, Liollio is so grateful to our wonderful clients who invest in great buildings to serve their communities! Cheers to our colleagues and clients who were recognized in 2024 with AIA South Carolina Design Awards, recognizing this vision and commitment to design excellence. We are honored to have collaborated on these four American Institute of Architects South Carolina award-winning projects.

AIA South Carolina has recognized the City of Charleston with an AIA South Carolina Honor Award for Carr-Richardson Park, James Island Public Service District with an AIA South Carolina Merit Award for the new James Island PSD Fire Station 1 Headquarters, The University of South Carolina with an AIA South Carolina Citation Award for the preservation of the South Caroliniana Library, and Landmark Enterprises with an AIA South Carolina Merit Award for the rehabilitation of Old City Jail.

Exceptional projects are the result of collaboration with visionary clients. Liollio congratulates our clients and collaborators on these amazing accolades!

MUSC Breaks Ground on New College of Medicine & Administrative Building

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Liollio Architecture, in collaboration with [tag The S/L/A/M Collaborative (SLAM)], is proud to be part of the journey to redefine medical education in South Carolina. The new Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine & Administrative Building will provide a space for students, staff, and faculty to support innovation and progress in medicine, education, and research. We celebrate MUSC’s leadership in education and their commitment to excellence as they break ground on this facility. Congratulations to the MUSC community on this milestone! Take a sneak peek at the new MUSC College of Medicine below.

Behre: A rehabilitation that took a lot of reimagining (and fighting) - The Post and Courier Article

The renovation of Charleston's Old City Jail into offices and event space included meticulous retooling of the stone surround on its main entrance.

By Robert Behre
Nov 16, 2024

One of Charleston's last unrestored landmarks — the Old City Jail at 21 Magazine St. — has emerged after a 7-year-long saga to reimagine, rehabilitate and repurpose one of the city's most fraught places into one of its most engaging.

A building that began life around 1802 housing criminals, debtors and enslaved people is now a creative mix of uses, ranging from a tour company on its first floor that gives visitors a glimpse of its past to new offices and an event space on the third floor and on the outside grounds that will define its future.

Importantly, the city, its preservation community and nearby residents worked with the developer, Landmark Enterprises, to give it the flexibility needed to create new commercial and office space in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

Such flexibility is key to reusing, and therefore revitalizing, unique properties, whether it's something the size of this jail or the tiny brick filling station at 80 Ashley Ave. 

The inside of the Old City Jail retains many unique, historical details, such as this small cage in a cell block door.

Architect Jay White of Liollio Architecture added the only visible new touch, a handsome vertical addition in the rear that provides an elevator and external stairs, both of which were needed to satisfy modern handicap access needs and safety codes. Not only is the addition tucked away, but it barely touches the historic jail. It's complementary but not competing.

The stair and elevator addition to the Old City Jail also includes small "Juliette balconies" from which visitors can look over its spacious grounds.

Very few other renovations of historic buildings receive the kind of governmental scrutiny the jail did. In addition to the city's Board of Architectural Review, the plan of work also needed the blessing of the State Historic Preservation Office and the National Park Service because its work was financed in part by state and federal historic tax credits.

As Jonathan Oakman with Landmark notes, securing all those approvals was a monumental task, as these different agencies had strong opinions that weren't always in agreement. That added time and money to a project that already needed a lot of both.

Old jails may be the most difficult buildings to adapt and reuse, though the city's second jail — the so-called "Seabreeze Hotel," built in the 20th century as an immigration station but later converted into a jail as the city finally closed its Magazine Street jail in 1939 — was successfully fixed up several years ago.

The second floor room of the Old City Jail that has been renovated for office use.

But the Old City Jail posed a far more challenging task: It was built in three segments: a main series of cell blocks that opened in 1802, with a jailer's quarters added closer to Magazine Street in 1859, and a rear, octagonal cell block that was added on the back. After the 1886 earthquake, the 1802 section's floors were rebuilt with steel and concrete. During the past century, the steel rusted and expanded, causing the concrete floors to push against the exterior sides.

Chunks of those floors already had been removed by the time Landmark bought the building, but it was up to Charles Blanchard Construction Co. to remove the rest and rebuild them to stop the damage.

Outside, about 40% of the brick work needed repointing, and 70% of the plaster replaced. All the window bars had deteriorated due to rust; they were removed, repaired and replaced. The nice thing about using the building as offices is they did not have to be attached quite as securely as when burly inmates naturally tested them.

Much of the stucco on the Old City Jail needed to be replaced, but some older portions were fine. And the building still has a patina reflecting its age.

The renovation also kept some ornamental plasterwork and a timber-framed shelter on the grounds, both of which reflect the recent years in which the American College of the Building Arts operated here before moving uptown to the renovated trolley barn.

"It was a challenging project that never truly wanted to get pinned to the mat," Jason Ward of Landmark says. "It was a fight the whole way down."

The stone detail on the front door was meticulously retooled and is more dramatic than the entrance to many churches. Inside the spaces are comfortable and austere in a genuine way.

The stone entrance to the Old City Jail was meticulously retooled and expresses the building's grandeur.

Landmark received the Historic Charleston Foundation's Whitelaw Founders Award this spring for its rehabilitation and excellent stewardship of the old jail, and more laurels are almost certainly on the way.

When I met Ward years ago as he was embarking on the project, he called it "so scary" and "so cool" and "so interesting." Years later, he's given the city an imposing old jail with a dramatic new and far more cheerful life.

It's so cool and interesting, it's scary.

The three-story central stair inside the Old City Jail still is illuminated by a skylight.

Read the article on The Post and Courier’s website here.

Liollio's Sarah Glass Honored with CRBJ's Forty Under 40 Award

The Charleston Regional Business Journal held it’s annual Forty Under 40 event last week at the Charleston Music Farm in downtown Charleston celebrating this year’s honorees. We are thrilled to share that Sarah Glass, AIA, Liollio Project Manager, Architect, & Associate, was honored as an award recipient. Honorees are chosen based on their career achievements and philanthropic efforts in the community. Liollio Architecture would like to congratulate Sarah and all of the 2024 Forty Under 40 honorees!

College of Charleston’s Albert Simons Center for the Arts Celebrates Grand Re-Opening

Our team was thrilled to celebrate the grand re-opening of the College of Charleston’s Albert Simons Center for the Arts. We were honored to present the College with a plaque reflecting its certification of Two Green Globes by the Green Building Initiative, in recognition of their commitment to sustainability. The Renovation and Expansion of the Simons Center, home of studio art, music, theatre, dance and more, had four leading goals: Modernizing Arts Education, Sustainability & Resiliency in the Urban Coastal Environment, Connecting History and the Future, and Showcasing the Arts. 

The revitalized School of the Arts building includes a new Black Box Theatre, new studios for sculpture, printmaking, drawing & painting, theatre design, costume shop, music classrooms, practice rooms, and a scene shop, in addition to active learning classrooms for Art History and Arts Management, faculty offices and spaces for student gathering. A new transparent Commons, that doubles as student gathering in the day and pre-function space in the evening, was added to welcome visitors in from the Green Way to experience the arts. 

President Hsu and Dean Jayme Host spoke at the opening, saying “this beautiful building bolsters our position as the artistic heartbeat of Charleston, as these spaces benefit our students as well as the community."  The reimagined Simons Center has ~100,000 SF of bright and colorful spaces that are inviting to students and visitors alike. The colors featured throughout the building are inspired by iconic architectural features found on campus along Green Way, College Way, and the Cistern Yard, such as the blue-green door of Towell Library and the rich coral color of Randolph Hall.

We would like to thank and congratulate College of Charleston and our entire AE team on the completion of this exciting and collaborative project! We can’t wait to attend all the exhibits and performances this fall! For more information on upcoming events, visit http://calendar.charleston.edu/simmons-center.

OLD CITY JAIL AWARDED HISTORIC CHARLESTON FOUNDATION'S 2024 WHITELAW FOUNDERS AWARD

Click image for more information.

The Old City Jail at 21 Magazine Street served as the county jail from its construction in 1802 until 1939 and was home to a variety of infamous inmates. Historic fabric and finishes were maintained wherever possible but there are challenges to retrofitting a jail for modern use. The new office suites have exposed brick walls, 14 to 16-foot ceilings, metal bars on the windows, and bars on some interior doors. Historic Charleston Foundation honored Old City Jail, LLC with a 2024 Whitelaw Founders Award for the rehabilitation and excellent stewardship of the Old City Jail. Liollio Architecture congratulates Old City Jail, LLC and our team on this amazing achievement. We’re honored to have been part of the team for the preservation and repurposing of this important and historic Charleston landmark. Congratulations to all of this year’s award recipients!

To learn more, visit: historiccharleston.org/blog/charter-day-2024-award-winners/

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Charleston Moves Mobility Month: Safe Streets on Tap at Munkle Brewing Company

Don’t mis Charleston Moves Mobility Month Events in May! Liollio is sponsoring the kick-off event this Thursday, May 2, from 5-8 pm, "Safe Streets on Tap” at Munkle Brewing Company - 1513 Meeting Street Rd, 29405. For more info visit the event.

Liollio Welcomes New Team Members Erin Estep & Nate Stoltenberg

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Erin Estep AIA, LEED AP

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Nate Stoltenberg Associate AIA

Liollio Architecture is pleased to welcome Architect, Erin Estep, and Designer, Nate Stoltenberg, to its studio.

A native of Delaware, Erin Estep earned her Master of Architecture and Bachelor of Science in Architecture at The Catholic University of America in Washington DC. Erin believes good design maintains strong connections to design concepts and client missions. As an Architect and Project Manager, Erin has been able to hone a skillset that ranges from client and team management to technical architectural skills. Her ambitions for continued growth and high design drives her to a detail-oriented, efficient work ethic, with a focus on delivering the best quality spaces for end users.

Upon graduating from Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Nate Stoltenberg relocated from Des Moines, Iowa to the Charleston area to join the Liollio studio as a Project Designer. Nate has a passion for sustainability and resiliency, which are important factors of responsible Lowcountry design. The representation of unique designs have been at the forefront of Nate’s education and interest. He values the process of physical model making as well as mixed media visual representation. Nate and Erin are valuable additions to the Liollio team, contributing in pinups, jumping into production, and elevating firm culture.

Liollio Architecture + SeamonWhiteside Selected to Design Rifle Range Road Park in Mt. Pleasant

The Town of Mount Pleasant’s New Rifle Range Road Park Site Plan - Transforming over 100 acres into a public park and recreation center for community enjoyment.

“The Liollio Team is committed to working with the Town of Mount Pleasant to provide a world-class community park experience on Rifle Range Road for decades to come, and we are thrilled to continue our collaboration with SW+. Many of our team members call Mount Pleasant home, and we feel a strong sense of stewardship and responsibility for giving back to our community,”

— Andy Clark, Principal, Liollio Architecture

Liollio Architecture + SeamonWhiteside (SW+), along with their team of local engineers, has been selected to provide planning, architectural, and engineering services for the newest park in Mount Pleasant, SC. Once complete, the hundred-acre Rifle Range Road Park will be an expansive community park in the Town. The completed park will provide a balance of passive and active spaces, preserving this natural resource for future generations while also offering recreational amenities for the community.

The design team is led by Liollio in partnership with SW+. The team will collaborate closely with Town leadership on master planning and site programming through construction to completion. Liollio will oversee overall project management and architectural design for a new recreation and community center. SW+ will assist in master planning, landscape architecture, and civil engineering services.

"The Liollio Team is committed to working with the Town of Mount Pleasant to provide a world-class community park experience on Rifle Range Road for decades to come, and we are thrilled to continue our collaboration with SW+. Many of our team members call Mount Pleasant home, and we feel a strong sense of stewardship and responsibility for giving back to our community," says Andy Clark, principal at Liollio Architecture.

"Making a lasting impact on the community in which we live is a huge source of pride for us here at SeamonWhiteside," says Gary Collins, vice president at SeamonWhiteside. "Not only are we excited for our employees to join neighbors and friends in experiencing the park once complete, but we're also excited to continue working alongside Liollio on another successful project here in the Charleston area."

Connected to Mount Pleasant Way, just north of Six Mile Road, the Rifle Range Road Park will add much-needed recreational amenities to the Town of Mount Pleasant and the surrounding neighborhoods. This new park will feature soccer fields, tennis courts, pickleball courts, beach volleyball courts, and outdoor basketball courts. In addition to these sporting components, a performance stage, grand lawn, picnic pavilions, playground, dog park, and walking trails are in the plans, with a central community building tying it all together. The community building will provide a 2-court basketball gymnasium, a walking track, and studios for community music, art, dance, and camp activities.

Rifle Range Road Park will be adjacent to beautiful wetlands and natural areas, allowing residents to enjoy the Lowcountry environment and amenities in a quiet, rural setting. Uniquely located and within walking distance of many residential communities, this park will provide a central hub to bring the local community together.

The partnership between Liollio and SeamonWhiteside will provide efficiency and cohesiveness. The two firms have worked together on previous projects, including Ashley River Park, a beloved and highly successful park for Dorchester County and the Tri-County region. The team is also currently working to complete Mt. Pleasant Fire Station #7. Liollio is recognized regionally for award-winning, sustainable architecture, using local history and culture as a guide, striving to create places that will become a source of local pride. SW+ is known for its ability to create stunning landscape designs and comprehensive site development. Rifle Range Road Park will undoubtedly benefit from the team’s combined skills and expertise.

IN HONOR OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2024, WE REFLECT ON HISTORIC PENN CENTER

Penn School was founded in 1862 as a school for formerly enslaved people. The school established a commitment to Black education, community welfare, and cultural heritage that has remained strong for over 150 years. Penn School functioned as an educational institution, health clinic, farm bureau, a catalyst for community action, and a repository for preserving St. Helena Island’s unique Gullah heritage and written history.

Original Building of the Penn School, St. Helena Island, SC (From the Penn School Collection)

At the turn of the century the school’s curriculum was revised to follow the Hampton-Tuskegee model of Black education - training students in masonry, carpentry, domestic arts, and midwifery. The school closed in 1948, but the community service and cultural preservation originated by its founders flourished through Penn Community Services, Inc., organized in 1951. Penn opened South Carolina’s first day care center for African Americans, provided a community health care clinic and a Teen Canteen.

The first basket teacher at the Penn Schoo, lSt. Helena Island, SC (From the Penn School Collection)

A class in mending & sewing at the Penn School, St. Helena Island, SC (From the Penn School Collection)

Throughout the 1960s, Penn Center sponsored and hosted interracial conferences on civil rights organized by groups including the NAACP, CORE, SNCC, Southern Regional Council, South Carolina Council on Human Relations, World Peace Foundation, and the Peace Corps. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) held citizenship education classes at Penn, taught by iconic organizers Andrew Young, Dorothy Cotton, Bernice Robinson, and Septima P. Clark. Andrew Young introduced Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to Penn Center. King, his SCLC lieutenants, and countless unnamed activists met with the SCLC at Penn five times between 1964 and 1967.

At Penn Center in 1966, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Joan Baez, Ira Sandpearl, & Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Photo Credit: Bob Fitch)

In November 1966, during a formal speech he gave at Penn Center, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. connected the long struggle for African American civil rights to the neglected fight for economic equality. In September 1974, the historic campus, Brick Church, and surrounding areas were listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In subsequent decades, Penn Center continued to serve as a site for church and organizational retreats, a training center for various organizations, and an educational site for Black history and culture. In January 2017, President Barack Obama designated the Beaufort National Landmark District, Camp Saxton Site, Penn Historic District and the Old Beaufort Firehouse as the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park  under management of the National Park Service. In 2021, the Penn Center was added to the African American Civil Rights Network (AACRN), as well as the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network. For more information on The Penn Center visit www.penncenter.com.

Liollio Architecture is honored to have had the privilege to design the St. Helena Branch Library which houses a Gullah Geechee Special Collections area and is contiguous to the National Historic Landmark campus of Penn Center.

St. Helena Branch Library at Penn Center, St. Helena Island, SC (Photo Credit: Richard Leo Johnson)

For more information regarding National Park Service’s Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor (established by Congress in 2006), please visit: www.nps.gov/places/gullah-geechee-cultural-heritage-corridor.htm.

CCPL Opens Renovated John L. Dart Library

Charleston County Public Library held the ribbon-cutting and grand reopening of the renovated John L. Dart Library in downtown Charleston this morning. The ribbon-cutting ceremony began at 9AM at the 1067 King Street branch. “We’re excited to show patrons the incredible transformation that has taken place at Dart,” said CCPL Executive Director Angela Craig. “The updates at the branch offer the surrounding community a modern library equipped with resources, services, and technology that complement our updated collection.”

Updates included new interior finishes, replacement of shelving, refreshed collection items (books, audiobooks, etc.), new furniture, technology upgrades, a private study room featuring Rev. John L. Dart’s personal book collection, and a new community meeting space.

Liollio is honored to have collaborated with the Charleston County Public Library, MB Kahn, and RMF Engineering on this momentous and meaningful project. Dart Hall, which was later replaced by the John L. Dart Library, was one of the original library branches established in 1931. Dart existed as a library for many years before the Charleston County Library adopted it as a branch. Dart Hall was originally built as the Charleston Industrial Normal Institute by the Rev. John L. Dart, a distinguished educator and a leading minister of the city. The current Library was built by the County Council in 1968 and named in honor of the late Rev. John L. Dart. Dedication ceremonies were held on Dec. 12, 1968, with members of the Dart family present.

For more information about this newly renovated library branch, please visit ccpl.org/construction.

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Liollio Honors the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on MLK Day 2024

Liollio will be observing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, January 15. This is a day for giving back to the community and observing the holiday in a way that is meaningful. 

MLK Day is the only federal holiday designated as a National Day of Service, to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities, as we celebrate and carry forward Dr. King’s great legacy. Our team will join the SC Aquarium for the MLK Day of Service Litter Sweep & Food Drive on Monday.

For more info, visit: https: americorps.gov/serve/volunteer/mlk-day
For information regarding MLK day events: ywcagc.org/mlk-celebration.html

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT LIOLLIO

We have much to be thankful for - the ability to pursue our passions and doing what we love, our clients, professional partners, consultants, community, each other…the list is long! We would not be who we are without you. We are grateful for the connections, opportunities, partnerships and support we’ve been blessed with this year. The Liollio team wishes you all the happiest of holidays!

First Baptist Church of Charleston Education Building Honored with 2 AIA Awards

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Congratulations to First Baptist Church of Charleston SC for being honored with two AIA Awards - an AIA South Atlantic Region 2023 Merit Award & an AIA South Carolina 2023Merit Award - for the new Education Building! This new structure on the campus of First Baptist Church and School in Charleston replaced a non-historic existing building located approximately mid-block between Meeting and Church streets. The building includes offices, classrooms, and a Fellowship Hall with a commercial kitchen, all of which are shared by the Church and School. The building is simply built of economical materials: brick veneer over metal studs and a structural steel frame with storefront and curtainwall glazing. The massing of the building is broken down into two wings to reduce the overall scale of the building in relation to the existing historic context. The design includes a reduced footprint compared to the existing building and utilizes a 12’-8” floor to floor height to better integrate the building into its context. The new education building works with the c.1822 Robert Mills-designed sanctuary to frame an active courtyard. Together, the new building, the courtyard, and the sanctuary represent the three pillars of Baptist faith: Education, Fellowship, and Worship. It also creates connections between three communities: the religious community of the church, the educational community of the school, and the historic community of Charleston’s South of Broad neighborhood.

CCPL Celebrates National American Indian Heritage Month With Architecture

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Charleston County Public Library recently hosted a Native American Architecture Program at the Main Library to celebrate National American Indian Heritage Month in November. The Liollio team volunteers for CCPL’s annual program to teach children about vernacular architecture and native structures and dwellings. Following a presentation of vernacular architecture, children were given an hour to build a dwelling of their choosing with the help and direction of architects and designers. The Liollio team had a wonderful time with the children and CCPL staff. It is always a pleasure spending time and sharing knowledge with our community. To potentially spark a child’s interest in history, architecture, and design is a special and rewarding experience. Thank you to Charleston County Public Library for hosting our team!

USC's South Caroliniana Library Ribbon Cutting & Grand Reopening

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The ribbon cutting for the University of South Carolina's South Caroliniana Library took place in Columbia recently and was a huge success! The library is our nation's oldest freestanding academic library and underwent meticulous renovation. Liollio is honored to have been part of the team who helped preserve this important and historic building for generations to come! Learn more about South Caroliniana Library, which houses the stories and the treasures of our state – from its leaders to its ordinary citizens. go.sc.edu/CarolinianaReopening

North Charleston's New Dorchester County Library Celebrates Ribbon Cutting

We are honored to have been part of the team for the new Dorchester County Library & Media Center in North Charleston. We were excited to attend the Ribbon Cutting ceremony last week, and the event was a huge success. Congratulations to Dorchester County Library, Dorchester County Government, Dorchester County School District, our amazing team and partners at Edifice, the City of North Charleston, and the greater community!

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