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“Cherie & Tommy’s combined experience spans a total of 80 years. Though we celebrate their careers, contributions, achievements, & retirement, they will remain part of the core foundation upon which Liollio Architecture was built and part of our professional family forever.”
Liollio is excited to announce that Richland Library Ballentine received an American Institute of Architects (AIA) Charleston Merit Award for New Construction at the 2022 AIA Charleston Design + Service Awards last month. Congratulations to our clients and friends at Richland Library!
Richland Library Ballentine is a suburban public library that creates a wooded escape to support an active local community of artists and craftspeople. The library provides a connection to the outdoors that includes an artist’s corner for quiet, meditative work surrounded by nature. The central public space is seen as a living room, a linear space which is oriented away from civilization and culminates in a framed view of an undeveloped woodscape. The living room is punctuated by three public art works, including a wisteria tree which drapes playfully over a children’s reading area, crocheted by library patrons.
Liollio is excited to announce that the Dorchester County Ashley River Park Event Pavilion received an American Institute of Architects (AIA) South Atlantic Region Merit Award for New Construction at the 2022 ASPIRE Conference in Asheville NC. The award-winning project also received an Honor Award for New Construction at the 2022 AIA Charleston Design + Service Awards last month. Congratulations to our clients and friends at Dorchester County Parks and Recreation, as well as, our Ashley River Park partners, SeamonWhiteside!
Liollio, in association with SeamonWhiteside, developed the new Ashley River Park for Dorchester County SC. The new 85-acre park features many amenities, including walking trails, fishing pier, dog park, interactive play foundation, playgrounds, open lawn, gatehouse, picnic shelters, event pavilion, restroom building and outfitters center. The event pavilion was designed for a wide variety of events, including family reunions, corporate events, weddings, music venue, etc. The outfitters building includes the park offices, tenant space for the future ropes course company, large conference room, a screen porch for school group programming and public restrooms. The team worked together to integrate the buildings and landscape. The Park has been warmly embraced by the community since its grand opening in March 2022.
2022 Aspire Design Awards Winners Winners were revealed at ASPIRE in Asheville NC in September. To view the awards gallery, click on the award image above.
Liollio is excited to share that the Charleston County Public Library Support Center received an American Institute of Architects (AIA) South Atlantic Region Merit Award for Adaptive Reuse at the 2022 ASPIRE Conference in Asheville NC. Congratulations to our clients and friends at Charleston County Public Library!
As part of the Charleston County Public Library’s referendum for 21st-century libraries, the Support Center relocated the CCPL Administration, training and conference facilities, and central Automated Materials Handling to a consolidated facility. A renovation and interior upfit to an existing industrial commerce facility, this project included administrative offices, training classrooms, conference rooms, employee support areas, central IT, library cataloging and acquisitions, central supply storage, Automated Materials Handling, and distribution to all branches. The renovation also provided innovative solutions to dry floodproofing, daylighting, and upgrades to the existing building.
2022 Aspire Design Awards Winners Winners were revealed at ASPIRE in Asheville NC in September. To view the awards gallery, click on the award image above.
Liollio Architecture’s partnership with Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and Mecklenburg County NC is featured in the latest Library Journal article “Future-Proofing Libraries Through Flexible Design” by Jessica Levine. Be sure to check out the coverage of South County Regional Library!
We are also excited to share that South County Library received an American Institute of Architects (AIA) South Atlantic Region Merit Award for Interior Architecture at the 2022 ASPIRE Conference in Asheville NC. Congratulations to our visionary clients!
“As a civic building, a library should support a community’s needs and also represent that community’s identity, aspirations, or unique sense of place.”
2022 Aspire Design Awards Winners Winners were revealed at ASPIRE in Asheville NC in September. To view the awards gallery, click on the award image above.
The Liollio team wishes you all a Happy Thanksgiving! 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. We wish you all the best as we enter into the holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you to the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry for hosting the Liollio team and allowing us to help revitalize the Museum’s garden space for this year’s Trident United Way Day of Caring. We loved helping out!
For over 20 years, Trident United Way has hosted the largest single day of community service in the Tri-County area on Day of Caring thanks to employers, teams and neighbors coming together to make a difference. Now they have tripled the impact from Day to Days of Caring in an effort to engage more volunteers, provide more flexibility for completing projects and deliver more impact to our Tri-County! For more information on how you can help support their efforts, please visit www.tuw.org/daysofcaring
Spotlight On is our tradition of interviewing team members to celebrate them and get to know them better. Our November Spotlight On feature is Catherine Manns. Catherine joined the Liollio team this year as an Interior Designer. She is a graduate of Iowa State University with a BFA in Interior Design. Catherine is a valuable addition to the studio, contributing in pinups, jumping into production, and adding to our firm culture. We sat down for a Q+A session with our October Spotlight On feature:
Where did you grow up?
Whitehall, Michigan. It is a small town on the coast of Lake Michigan that gets full of tourists in the Summer.
What do you like to do for fun?
Play Mario Kart with my boyfriend and go for drives by the water.
Do you have pets? If so, tell us a bit about them.
I just adopted a rescue dog of my own here in Charleston! Her name is Pokey because she is a slow poke. She is a black Labrador mix and is only 30 pounds. Pokey is a quirky dog who is already very comfortable sleeping in our bed and stealing our spot on the couch. My family in Michigan has 3 dogs that I grew up with. Koa is a beagle mix who is 13 years old and the epitome of a grumpy old man. He stays young with the other two dogs named Akela, a pitbull mix, and Hanai, a great dane puppy(ish). Akela will follow you everywhere and will peer pressure you into a car ride. Hanai is 90 pounds, but she still has a favorite stuffed animal that she carries around and is afraid of small children. All 3 dogs have Hawaiian names with their own meaning because my mom was born in Hawaii. It has been a tradition since her and my dad named their first dog together.
Favorite food?
A good burger with lots of mayo.
Favorite television show?
Deep down I am a 90 year-old woman and I love all game shows, but my favorite is Wheel of Fortune. My family has watched it every weeknight at 7pm for as long as I can remember. I now make my boyfriend participate.
Favorite movie or genre?
Monsters Inc. is one of my childhood favorites, and The Lovely Bones is one of my favorite darker movies. I love watching things about murder and kidnapping.
Favorite style of architecture?
I have always loved Victorian style architecture for homes.
If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?
Dog - because they have no responsibilities.
Are you messy or organized?
Organized for the most part.
What’s your pet peeve?
I hate the sound of hands rubbing together, and not really a pet peeve, but I hate that pedestrians have the right of way.
Guilty pleasure?
Coca-Cola
Favorite quote?
”Live your life in such a way that if someone spoke badly of you, no one would believe it.”
If you could interview one person (dead or alive) who would it be?
Old relatives
Tell us a random fact.
Subway bread is classified as cake due to its high sugar content.
If your house was burning down, what is the one nonliving thing you would save?
Family photos
What’s your astrological sign?
Cancer
What is your personal philosophy?
Everything will work out in the end.
What’s one thing you couldn’t live without?
Google Maps
What is your greatest fear?
Being stuck/locked in a small space.
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
Receiving a full ride to Iowa State.
What is your favorite thing about working at Liollio?
That I can contribute my interior design skills and also learn more about architecture and how it all intertwines.
If you could do another job for just one day, what would it be?
I used to want to be a vet when I was a kid, before I found out they work on many animals not just puppies.
What would you most like to tell yourself at age 13?
Stop trying to grow up so fast - enjoy being a kid at home while you can.
How do you define success?
Loving what you do every day, surrounded by people you love.
Tell us something that might surprise us about you.
I love listening to screamo and punk-rock music whenever I do design work. It puts me in the zone.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
My mom told me that the juiciest watermelons are the ones that are all beat up on the outside. That is not a metaphor, it is actually a watermelon tip.
Charleston Moves' 6th annual Pedal & Panache, presented by Bike Law and Morrison Yard Residences, is tomorrow! This is Charleston Moves' single largest annual fundraiser, and they need our support. Please buy your tickets, invite your friends, and join in for a fun evening to power our safe streets movement. You can purchase tickets here.
Boss's Day (also written as Bosses Day or Boss' Day) is generally observed on or around October 16th in the United States. It is a day for employees to do something kind and heartfelt for supervisors as a way of saying thank you. We celebrated National Boss’s Day at Liollio this morning with a breakfast provided by the studio. Each team member brought in homemade breakfast dishes, pastries and more. Cheers to all the great bosses out there!
PechaKucha, which means the sound of conversation in Japanese, was first conceived by Tokyo architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham, who were seeking a way to encourage student presenters to use PowerPoint in a more organized and succinct manner. PechaKucha has spread to over 135 cities around the world as an informal forum for creative people to meet, network and show their work in public. Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for just 20 seconds, giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show.
PechaKucha 40 took place at Charleston Music Hall on Thursday, September 15, 2022 and featured presenters Candace Patterson, Will Kiser, Bintou N’Daw, Kalyn Oyer, Chase Quinn, and many others, including Liollio Principal Jennifer Charzewski. Check out all the presentations on Charleston Music Hall’s Youtube page.
Last week the Charleston Regional Business Journal's 2022 Forty Under 40 Awards Ceremony was held at Charleston Gaillard Center. Liollio Associate and Architect, Elissa Morrison, AIA, was honored as one of the 40 recipients. The Liollio team would like to congratulate Elissa and all of this year’s honorees!
Charleston Regional Business Journal
Written by Jenny Peterson
Photography by Ariel Perez
SEP 16, 2022
They’re volunteers, non-profit board members, foster parents, founders of nonprofits that help children and the community and pioneers in their fields.
Even more outstanding? They’re all under 40 years old.
More than 250 people attended the Charleston Regional Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 event, celebrating those young people’s accomplishments while feasting on prime rib and a mashed potatoes bar. The event was sponsored by Charleston Southern University and the Charleston Gaillard Center.
Each nominee was called to the stage and their resumes and community service highlighted by emcees Quinn Gaines — a past Forty Under 40 winner and director of business development for Choate Construction’s South Carolina Division — and Jason Thomas, executive editor of SC Biz News.
While the nominees work in a wide variety of industries — real estate, architecture, transportation, legal and health services, property management, hospitality — all of them have a deep passion for giving back to their community.
Collectively, the nominees dedicate their time and support the following organizations: The Susan G. Komen dragon boat race, Teacher’s Supply Closet, Green Heart Project, American Red Cross, Chase After the Cure, Girls on the Run, Make-a-Wish Foundation, Dee Norton Child Advocacy Center, Next Child Fund, One80Place, Goose Creek Planning Commission, financial literacy organization Increasing HOPE and the Junior League of Summerville.
Many nominees use their business skills to help the community, like Max N. Gruetzmacher, member attorney at Motley Rice, who has offered legal services for Dee Norton Child Advocacy Center, Charleston HALOS, Lowcountry Food Bank, Charleston WaterKeeper, Charleston Animal Society, Palmetto Paws and Charleston Legal Access.
Doing good through their work, Nichole Johnson, a local missions ministry leader at Seacoast Church, runs a warming shelter for homeless people in West Ashley. Devon Andrews, director of policy and partnerships at the Charleston Parks Conservancy, created community initiatives like Books on Buses, Books for Babies programs, Free and Fresh Fridge initiative.
Personal missions include the creation of new important nonprofits. Zach Volousky, vice president and financial consultant at South State Investment Services, co-founded Pickle’s People, which supports children and families that are undergoing a recent childhood cancer diagnosis, following his young daughter’s Leukemia diagnosis.
Marcus Bryant, a formerly homeless youth, founded Compass Collegiate Academy, a free charter school in North Charleston, and has dedicated his service to empowering marginalized communities.
Breaking down barriers in health care, Jill Dunnigan, manager of Provider Network Management for Select Health of South Carolina, served as the company’s first culturally and linguistically appropriate services coordinator. She learned about the problem of cultural and linguistic barriers while studying in Spain during college, where she experienced the struggles one encounters when using a health care system in a non-native language and culture. Dr. Cerrissa Hugie was recognized as the first female Black psychiatric nurse practitioner to open her own practice in Charleston.
Celebrating the local community, Dawn Boren, senior management specialist at Boeing, writes a children’s book series called Stories of the Gullah Geechee Children in her free time.
“Beautiful beaches, an historic downtown and great weather do not make a community — people like these 40 young people do,” said Thomas. “It takes many people volunteering their time and talent to build a strong, rich, vibrant, caring community. The selfless examples, the breadth and depth of community service and volunteer work represented tonight, is truly inspiring.”
Charleston’s creative community returns to Charleston Music Hall for PechaKucha 40 on September 15! Liollio Principal, Jennifer Graham Charzewski, will be presenting how the creative process is driven by collaboration.
Tickets on Sale Now! https://www.charlestonmusichall.com/event/pechakucha-40/
Spotlight On is a Liollio tradition of interviewing team members to celebrate them and to get to know them better as individuals. Our August Spotlight On feature is Hunter Thurlo. Hunter became a welcome addition to our team his year, joining the Liollio studio as a Project Designer. He is a graduate of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture (2021) and a Masters of Architecture (2022). Hunter has become a valuable contributor, jumping right into studio pinups, production and the culture of the firm. We sat down for a little Q+A with one of our newest team members.
Where did you grow up? Mocksville NC
Are you married? No
Do you have children? No
What do you like to do for fun? Be outside, and explore new things.
Do you have pets? If so, tell us a bit about them. Growing up we had a recreational farm, and a slew of dogs and cats.
Favorite place(s) to go locally? Sullivan’s Island
Favorite food? Mexican
Least favorite food? Indian
Favorite book? Any well-articulated (with pictures) monograph on architecture.
Do you play any instruments? No
Favorite musical artist or genre? My Spotify favorites resemble a pinball …always changing directions
Favorite visual artist? Ralph Grady James
Favorite television show? The Big Bang Theory
Favorite podcast or blog? Oh yeah, I cannot pay attention to podcasts.
Favorite movie or genre? National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Favorite style of architecture? All styles resemble a time/place that represents the culture and technology of the time; therefore favoritism towards one is not allowing the understanding of what the style did for humanity.
Where is your favorite place you’ve traveled to and why? St. Kitts. However, Rome would have probably topped it if my Study Abroad wasn’t cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
What would the book or movie about your life be called? Dumpster Fire
If you could be any animal, what would you be and why? Whale - the strong family aspect.
Are you messy or organized? An organized mess.
What’s your pet peeve? The lack of work ethic.
Tell us a random fact. I spent Thanksgiving in jail one time…it’s not what you think.
Favorite quote? “Humor is the absence of terror, and terror is the absence of humor.” – Jimmy Buffett
What three traits characterize you? Humorous, extroverted, selfless
What’s your astrological sign? Aries
What is your personal philosophy? Don’t Give Up the Ship
What is your greatest fear? Birds, snakes, ghosts
What inspires you most? Working hard and dedication.
What accomplishment are you most proud of? Making the rival high school swim coach break a clipboard because I beat his swimmer.
What is your favorite thing about working at Liollio? The culture and dedication to design.
What does true leadership mean to you? Selflessness and respect.
If you could do another job for just one day, what would it be? Large machine operator at a landfill…I would crush it.
What would you most like to tell yourself at age 13? Go have fun and take a break.
How do you define success? Starts with waking up in the morning.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received? “Confident, not cocky.”
The South Carolina Historic Preservation Awards were presented at the State House on July 13, 2022 by SC Governor Henry McMaster and First Lady Peggy McMaster. The awards were sponsored by the Office of the Governor, the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, and Preservation South Carolina. Liollio Architecture’s project, The Brick House, McConnells: Historic Brattonsville, was honored with a 2022 South Carolina Historic Preservation Stewardship Award. The Liollio team has great respect and appreciation for our State’s history and the preservation of it’s historic landmarks. Liollio is honored to be part of the talented team of individuals who have united to revitalize and preserve this historic building. Congratulations to our team and to all of this year’s award recipients for their amazing work!
For more information about the projects/recipients and images from the awards presentation visit Preservation South Carolina’s 2022 awards page. And click here for a local ABC News story on the awards.
Governor’s Award: Dr. Wenonah Haire, Rock Hill: Catawba Nation Tribal Historic Preservation Officer and Executive Director of the Catawba Cultural Preservation Project
Preservation Service Award (project/recipient): Grace Chapel Baptist Cemetery Project, Charleston : The South Carolina History Room, Charleston County Public Library
Stewardship Awards (property/recipient):
Strawberry Chapel, Moncks Corner: Strawberry Chapel Vestry, St. John’s Berkeley Parish
South Carolina Governor’s Mansion, Columbia: The South Carolina Department of Administration
The Brick House, McConnells: Historic Brattonsville – York Culture & Heritage Museums
John Mark Verdier House, Beaufort: Historic Beaufort Foundation
164 King Street, Charleston: Charleston Library Society
Preservation Honor Awards (project/recipients):
106 E. Benson Street, Anderson: Danny Walker; Daniel Builders; and Kyle Campbell, Preservation South, LLC
1639-1645 Main Street, Columbia: Sara Middleton Styles & Greg Middleton, Smoked; Rogers Lewis Jackson Mann & Quinn, LLC; Scott Garvin, Garvin Design Group; and Lee Mashburn, Mashburn Construction Company
Savage Craft Ale Works, West Columbia: Andrew Baumgartner, Baumer Holdings, LLC; Mark Hood, Amanda Harter, Dean Wilson, Hood Construction; and Wes Lyles, Studio2LR
Monarch Building/ Bank of Camden: Laurel & Westley Parks, P&P Investment Partners; Scott Lambert, Lambert Architecture & Construction Services; Rich Spencer, Lambert Architecture & Construction Services
Woodside Cotton Mill, Greenville: Randy Moore, CG Woodside Partners, LLC; Ken Betsch, Betsch Associates; and Chris Norris, Caldwell Constructors
Liollio Architecture is thrilled to be part of the Edifice team on the new Dorchester County Library North Charleston Branch. Davis & Floyd, RMF, and EM Structural are all part of the team. The new 15,000 SF joint-use library as a collaboration between Dorchester County, Dorchester County Library, and Dorchester School District 2, located adjacent to Fort Dorchester High School. It is flagged as a part of Collaboration Corridor on Patriot Boulevard. The groundbreaking ceremony took place June 27.
The Liollio team would like to thank all who attended our recent housewarming event and helped us celebrate our new home at The Refinery in Downtown Charleston. A very special thank you to our friends and neighbors at The Refinery, The Whale Craft Beer Collective & Tasting Room, who curated our beverages - and 96.3 FM OHM Radio, who crafted a custom playlist just for our event. Thank you to Lewis Barbecue for catering the delicious ‘cue and sides - and The Cake Stand Charleston for your amazing cupcakes. Last but not least, thank you to our friends sundogband, the unpredictable, high-energy variety band based out of Charleston, who brought our terrace to life with great music and vibes. We are so grateful to you all. Thank you for making our event a success!
April 22, 2022 DISCOVERY PLACE NATURE
Discovery Place celebrated Earth Day by unveiling design plans for the reimagining of Discovery Place Nature situated in Charlotte’s Freedom Park. The new nature haven will be a world-class environmental education center serving the Carolinas and will feature a free public garden filled with wildlife and native plants, inviting the community to connect with and explore the wonders of our natural world.
The project is a public-private partnership between Mecklenburg County, who owns the property and facility, and Discovery Place, a nonprofit leader for science education in the U.S., which has operated the Museum since its doors opened to the Charlotte community in 1947.
“Discovery Place Nature has been an incredible community resource for decades,” said Mecklenburg County Manager Dena R. Diorio. “This is a huge step toward ensuring it remains a valuable learning resource for decades to come.”
A public-private partnership, the new Museum will be developed at the 71-year-old facility’s current location on Sterling Road adjacent to Freedom Park, providing a complete reinvention of the current Discovery Place Nature—the first nature museum in the Southeast. The Board of County Commissioners of Mecklenburg County previously approved the recommendation of County staff and Discovery Place to select the award-winning team of Liollio Architecture and Hood Design Studio to lead the planning and design of the new Discovery Place Nature.
“Mecklenburg County and Discovery Place are thrilled to have such a talented and environmentally-focused team on board to bring a new future for Discovery Place Nature to life,” said Catherine Wilson Horne, president & CEO of Discovery Place Inc. “We can’t wait to see the vision formed by Liollio and Hood, two organizations with deep Carolina roots, come to life for one of Charlotte’s most beloved and important institutions. The new design will allow us to connect with the community in an elevated way, including signature environment educational experiences and programming for all ages.”
Based in Charleston, South Carolina, Liollio Architecture has been providing thoughtful, respectful, creative design since 1956. Their work spans both the private and public sectors, providing sustainable architecture, interior design and historic preservation. Liollio has built a reputation on design through community engagement and collaboration, and their work is rooted in the particulars of place, people and landscape.
Liollio has won more than 100 design awards over the years for its work, including the 2016 American Institute of Architects South Carolina Firm Award; the Library Journal Landmark Library National Award for St. Helena Library at Penn Center; and the AIA South Atlantic Region Honor Award for Hampton Health Clinic.
“We are honored to be collaborating with Discovery Place and Mecklenburg County on the new Discovery Place Nature, which will combine Discovery Place’s capacity for innovation and education in science, nature and design with the incredible setting of Freedom Park,” said Jennifer Charzewski, Principal at Liollio Architecture. “The Liollio and Hood Design Studio team sees this as an exciting opportunity to create an engaging and creative place for residents and visitors for generations to come.”
California-based Hood Design Studio, led by Charlotte native Walter Hood, will partner with Liollio on the Discovery Place Nature project. The studio’s award-winning landscape design, public art, installation art and urbanism unveil the emergent beauty, strangeness, subjectivity and idiosyncrasies of place. They root their design work in collaboration, seeing projects thrive under the joint efforts of design teams and through engagement with constituents and local communities.
Hood Design is well-known for their work, which includes projects such as The Broad Museum Plaza in Los Angeles, the new de Young Museum gardens in San Francisco, the Cooper-Hewitt Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden in New York City and the soon-to-open International African American Museum in Charleston, SC. The firm has been the recipient of several awards, including a California Preservation Award for Bayview Opera House from the California Preservation Foundation, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Landscape Design and Wall Street Journal’s Best Architecture Award for the University at Buffalo Solar Strand.
In 2021 founder Walter Hood was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York, which is “considered the highest form of recognition of artistic merit in the United States.”
Construction for the new Discovery Place Nature Museum is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2023.
About Discovery Place Nature
Founded in 1947 as the Children’s Nature Museum, Discovery Place Nature has been a staple in Charlotte’s education and cultural community for 75 years. The Museum conjures curiosity and activates the imagination through educational experiences that help us connect to the natural world. Guests can discover native animal species, encourage imaginative play in Fort Wild, take a family trek through the 100-year-old trees on the Paw Paw Nature Trail and explore the stars in the planetarium. For more information, visit discoveryplace.org or call 704.372.6261 x300.
About Liollio Architecture
Liollio believes creativity originates through the eyes and stories of communities based on subtle and restrained design, rooted in context, culture and collaboration. For over 63 years, Liollio has provided architecture, interior design, programming, historic preservation and master planning services. Liollio has been honored by the American Institute of Architects South Carolina Chapter as a Firm Award Recipient. Visit liollio.com for more info.
About Hood Design Studio
Hood Design Studio is tripartite practice, working across art + fabrication, design + landscape, and research + urbanism. The resulting urban spaces and their objects act as public sculpture, creating new apertures through which to see the surrounding emergent beauty, strangeness, and idiosyncrasies. The Studio’s award-winning work has been featured in publications including Dwell, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fast Company, Architectural Digest, Places Journal, and Landscape Architecture Magazine.
