Earth Day 2025: Visit Your Local Parks!

As Earth Day approaches, Liollio encourages everyone to get outside and enjoy their local parks! Check out Carr-Richardson Park - a hidden gem nestled in the historic Ashleyville/Maryville neighborhood of West Ashley in Charleston, S.C. Alongside the City of Charleston, Liollio prioritized sustainable and resilient design to allow this beautiful space to be enjoyed for generations to come. Local parks bring communities together, provide space for events, and offer opportunities to connect with the natural environment. The countdown to Earth Day is on!

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!

Firehouse Magazine Announces National Station Design Award Winners

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Firehouse Magazine announced the winners of its ninth annual Station Design Awards program, which recognizes outstanding architecture and design from fire departments and emergency facilities nationwide. Peter Matthews, Firehouse Editor-in-Chief said, “This is the ninth year of the awards, and we are excited to see the advances in fire station designs. It’s wonderful to see the coordination between fire departments and architectural firms to design stations with a focus on keeping firefighters trained and healthy to better serve their communities. As fire departments become true all-hazard response agencies, their training and equipment needs grow, and the new facilities offer improved opportunities for firefighters to hone their skills.”

Winners were selected by a panel of seven judges, including fire chiefs and architects experienced in recent design and construction. Liollio is honored to announce that The City of Charleston Fire Station #11 received the Firehouse Station Special Design Award and James Island Public Service District Fire Station #1 HQ received a Notable Award.

Fire stations are essential public buildings that serve as critical infrastructure for emergency response services, and designing them requires careful consideration of operational needs, efficiency, and aesthetics. Receiving this award highlights Liollio’s commitment to creating spaces that not only meet the functional requirements of a fire station but also contribute to the community's architectural landscape. It recognizes Liollio’s dedication to designing buildings that enhance the well-being of the firefighters and the surrounding community while promoting safety and efficiency.

Showcasing and recognizing both projects is a tremendous honor and the Liollio team would like to thank Firehouse, the jurors, and our clients and project team. Congratulations to our clients at the City of Charleston, Charleston Fire Department and James Island Public Service District!

About Firehouse
Firehouse is the leading fire and emergency services brand, reaching more than 1.5 million visitors and subscribers monthly and thousands of attendees annually via its live events and media portfolio. The Firehouse brand encompasses Firehouse Magazine, Firehouse.com, Firehouse Expo, Firehouse Station Design Conference, Station Design Awards, and many print and digital products targeting fire and emergency services personnel. Utilizing its multiple platforms and unparalleled reach, Firehouse sets itself apart from the competition by fostering a culture that encourages innovation and the use of the latest digital and database technologies to best serve its audience and companies serving the marketplace.

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

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.