King Street building mixes old into new

Robert Behre writes in The Post and Courier about a new building on Upper King Street that rebuffs the standard Charleston motif to build new buildings to replicate the past:

Architect Whitney Powers of Studio A says the original idea was to preserve that facade and build something contemporary just behind it.

"There was a lot of interest in seeing that happen," she says, but it didn't. "We were going to use that facade, but it was so structurally unsound it became a hazard. We thought it was going to fall into the street."

Instead, Powers ended up designing one of the most novel buildings on Upper King — one bound to trigger arguments about whether it fits into the city.

If architecture is your thing there's plenty more at The Post and Courier's Web site, along with a photo gallery.

Behre also points out that the new building isn't the only one window structure on Upper King.

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