Old City Jail Honored with Preservation Award at 71st Carolopolis Awards Ceremony

The Preservation Society of Charleston (PSC) handed out more awards last Friday evening than they have in 30 years at the 71st Carolopolis Awards, showcasing outstanding achievement in historical preservation and restoration throughout the Charleston area. The PSC recognized Landmark Enterprises with a Carolopolis Award for the Exterior Preservation of the Old City Jail — a project we were honored to contribute to.

Once neglected and at risk, this landmark has been carefully rehabilitated, balancing preservation and adaptive reuse. The restoration retained the Jail’s historic character while introducing thoughtful interventions, ensuring its continued use and stewardship.

Twenty-seven awards were handed out in total — the most since 1995. Liollio would like to congratulate all of this year’s award recipients!

City of Charleston Fire Station #11 & James Island PSD Fire Station #1 Honored with F.I.E.R.O. Design Awards

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Click here to review the Program Award Winners.

For the 2022 FIERO Fire Station Design Awards Program, FIERO received entries from architectural firms across North America. The Jury awarded two Honor Awards, two Merit Awards, and four Recognition Awards. We are honored to announce that two Liollio projects were awarded! The City of Charleston Fire Station #11 received one of the two FIERO Honor Awards and James Island Public Service District Fire Station #1 HQ received one of the two Merit Awards. Our entire team would like to thank FIERO and the jurors for recognizing and honoring our station designs! We would also like to say thank you and congratulations to our clients at the City of Charleston, Charleston Fire Department and James Island Public Service District!

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About F.I.E.R.O.
F.I.E.R.O. (Fire Industry Education and Resource Organization) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, organization which operates under the guidance of an all-volunteer Board of Directors comprised of members with a rich history in the fire service. F.I.E.R.O. exists to improve firefighter health and safety and accomplishes this through educational conferences and workshops and participation on research projects. In the past five years, we have partnered with the NFPA Fire Protection Research Foundation to study contamination control and with N.C. State University to study heat strain caused by personal protective equipment (PPE).

F.I.E.R.O. was formed in September 1990 and was modeled after three west coast organizations: SAFER (Southern Area Fire Equipment Research), NAFER (Northern Area Fire Equipment Research) and CAFER (Central Area Fire Equipment Research). Though based in California, these organizations reached into Phoenix, AZ and Las Vegas, NV. Of those three original organizations, SAFER is the only one still in operation. The general concept was to create a network for fire service professionals to connect with each other and with equipment manufacturers to improve the products used in the fire service--amazingly, the fire service discovered that their problems were not unique. Through these organizations, products such as disintegrating PPV fan blades are no longer in the market and locking Storz couplings are now the standard. The fire service and related manufacturers all benefited from improved products and better service because of these organizations.

The first F.I.E.R.O. meeting was held at the Cobb County Fire Department in Georgia with close to 100 people in attendance and Captain Doug Miller of the Atlanta Fire Department (who later became Chief of the Atlanta Fire Department) spoke about PPE selection. F.I.E.R.O. continued to meet throughout the Southeast with Captain Dart Kendall (Cobb County Fire Department) serving as the first President and Battalion Chief Brenda Nishiyama Willis ("Nish") of the Atlanta Fire Department serving as the first treasurer.

With the emergence of the Internet and email, communications about product problems spread through the industry very quickly and F.I.E.R.O. re-invented itself. The board realized there were other areas where the fire service needed to learn more about and create stronger connections in. In 2000, F.I.E.R.O. hosted the first-of-its-kind, and F.I.E.R.O.'s first (what would become annual) Fire Station Design Symposium in Charlotte. Through the symposium, F.I.E.R.O. provided fire station design education and exposure to experts in fire station design to the fire service. Through 2018, F.I.E.R.O. has hosted 17 Fire Station Design Symposiums in both Charlotte and Raleigh. In 2009, again recognizing an unmet need, F.I.E.R.O. hosted the first-ever Fire PPE Symposium, also in Charlotte. This symposium focuses on disseminating the results of research and scientific studies, creating a better understanding of the performance requirements set for firefighting PPE, and the limitations of firefighting PPE. In March 2019, the seventh biennial PPE Symposium will be held in Raleigh. Attendance at these symposiums increases for every event, illustrating the broad reach F.I.E.R.O. has in the fire service. In 2014, to broaden that educational reach, F.I.E.R.O. conducted its first Regional Fire PPE Workshop at the DFW Fire Research & Training Facility in Texas. The focus of these smaller workshops is the selection, care and maintenance of PPE.

Fore more information, please visit fieroonline.org

College of Charleston Arts Building Set for Multimillion-Dollar Overhaul

A rendering shows a design of what the renovated Albert Simons Center could look like from St. Philip Street. College of Charleston/Provided

By Maura Hogan mhogan@postandcourier.com
The Post and Courier
Sep 3, 2021

The College of Charleston is set to begin a multimillion-dollar renovation of the Albert Simons Center for the Arts.

It realizes a plan that was set in motion by the college years ago.

“This has been a long time coming and we’re delighted,” School of the Arts Dean Edward Hart said in a statement.

From the project’s onset, the college estimated its cost at $50 million. The arts center, which is on St. Philip Street on the college campus, will be closed for the next two years while the 42-year-old building’s renovation is completed. The renovation will upgrade classrooms and performance spaces as well as the building’s technology and infrastructure. Construction is slated to begin in late September.

The College of Charleston’s Albert Simons Center for the Arts will undergo extensive renovations. File/Brad Nettles/Staff

Designed by Liollio Architecture and HGA Design Firm, the reimagined Simons Center is conceived to be inviting to students, featuring colors inspired by iconic architectural features found on campus, such as the blue-green door of Towell Library and the coral color of Randolph Hall.

“It will look brighter and I think it will be more noticeable from the street,” he said.

The work will involve 87,365 square feet, according to Brad Weiland, senior project manager for the College of Charleston’s facilities management, with the renovated Simons Center encompassing more than 99,000 square feet.

Hart points out that while the Simons Center has served the department well since opening in 1979, it was in need of an upgrade after more than 40 years. It opened with the aim of serving up to 800 students.

A rendering shows a possible design of what the renovated lobby of the Simons Center could look like, featuring large windows and tall ceilings. College of Charleston/Provided

Today, the College of Charleston said the building, which is the main hub of the School of the Arts, accommodates five times that number.

Among the key improvements will be new seminar classrooms, updated and enlarged classroom spaces and a new two-story black box theater. The School of the Arts will also benefit from a state-of-the-art costume shop, scene shop and theater design studio; new sculpture, printmaking and drawing studios; a digital lab and gallery/multipurpose room; new music practice rooms and revamped dressing room spaces.

The renovation also includes mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems and updated technological systems.

Five locations around campus will house School of the Arts programs and departments during the renovation. These include Harbor Walk West, 136 St. Philip St. (the former site of Redux Contemporary Art Studio); the Lightsey Center, Calhoun Annex (172 Calhoun St./Chapel Theatre); and 329 King St. (corner of King and George streets).

A rendering shows a design of the main corridor inside the Albert Simons Center. College of Charleston/Provided

With the Recital Hall and the Emmett Robinson Theatre, located within the Simons Center, closed for the duration of the renovation, many School of the Arts performances will be held in the college’s Sottile Theatre as well as the Chapel Theatre.

Construction will run through 2022, and major completion of the building will take place in the spring of 2023, with an estimated opening for the fall 2023 semester, Weiland said.

With large windows, a modern façade and carefully chosen brick, Hart said the entrance is meant to subtly grab visitors’ attention as they make their way from the rear of Randolph Hall to St. Philip Street.

College of Charleston students visit the Albert Simons Center for the Arts in 2019. The building, located on St. Philips Street, soon will be getting a makeover. File/Brad Nettles/Staff

The building will also give added visual prominence to School of the Arts, and its role in the city of Charleston’s arts scene. It dovetails with new branding, centered on the tagline “The Artistic Heartbeat of Charleston.”

“There really isn’t an artistic institution in this town that we aren’t somehow involved with, whether it’s a direct relationship or partnership or whether it’s our graduates that are over there or our faculty members,” Hart said. 

The College of Charleston has deep connections with Spoleto Festival USA, Piccolo Spoleto, the Charleston Symphony, the Charleston Gaillard Center, the Preservation Society of Charleston, as well as many area theater and dance companies and art galleries.

“We can just go on and on, and I think it’s time for us to claim that. Charleston is an arts city and we’re at the heart of it,” Hart said.

With such an integral role in Charleston’s arts scene, the significant investment also bodes well for continued arts vitality in the years ahead.

“When times are tough, very often the arts take it on the chin. And our administration has shown the foresight to really stand by us with this project, which indicates that the arts really are a priority for the College,” Hart said.

STUDIOLLIO

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#Studiollio - In the Fall of 2019, Liollio Principals Andy Clark and Jennifer Charzewski co-taught a firm design studio as lecturers for Clemson University’s School of Architecture at the Clemson Architecture Center in Charleston. Students experienced an academic design studio through the lens of a professional teaching studio.  The studio explored the City of Charleston and it’s grappling with change due to climate, technology, population, economics and mobility. Students investigated critical issues with a focus on how design can improve resiliency and cultural connectivity within a city.

A vibrant city is a living, breathing organism, and the civic infrastructure and architecture connect the identity, aspirations, and human story of the occupants to each other and to the past, present, and future. Architecture is intrinsically linked to landscape architecture and site in a hybrid conversation, rather than two separate entities. Similarly, the infrastructure that connects and moves people should participate in this hybrid conversation, and can reveal the opportunities that exist to grow in healthy ways.

Programmatically, Charleston is also confronting a tenuous balance between the tourism industry which undergirds the city’s economy, and the desire to be a livable city for all residents. Whereas development in housing, retail, food service, and offices is booming, it is often the cultural institutions and public parks that really bring a city to life and give it depth and a voice to residents.

Charleston is home to many preeminent programs and buildings for the visual and performing arts, and includes an aquarium, a history museum, and a children’s museum. However, there is a notable absence of a museum or center for nature and science –which are both integral to life in the Lowcountry and to supporting workforce development and STEM education.

The design projects provided the students with an opportunity to investigate these ideas and opportunities, further refine their critical and strategic approach in an iterative design process across a variety of scales, and develop requisite design and presentation communication skills. As a firm-led studio, the unique perspective of a practicing firm provided opportunities to intersect the academy with practice, including connecting students to professional mentors and enriching the firm with academic investigation.