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Architect growth mirrors local population growth
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
There are more architectural firms in Charleston than there were a decade ago, but that should not come as a surprise.
There are also a lot more people here than there used to be.
“We’re just getting more and more people, and with more people you have more houses, more commercial spaces, more schools, more churches, more shopping, more everything,” said David Burt, associate principal of LS3P Associates Ltd. and president of the Charleston chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
AIA Charleston currently has 232 members, including architects, architects emeritus and associates. That number represents a 69% growth since 1999, when AIA Charleston had 137 members.
While the industry is growing here, Burt said the bigger picture across the nation is different.
“For the first time in 70-something years, there are fewer architects in the country,” Burt said.
That is because other professions have jobs that require skills for which architects have been trained.
“Animation companies are calling on them, interior design companies are calling on them,” Burt said. “Coming out of school, they’re getting pulled into different professions.”
The process of studying to become an architect is also long and arduous: four years of college and two more in order to obtain a master’s degree, then a minimum of three years in an intern development program. Final exams involve nine tests that cost about $1,200; if one is failed, there is a minimum six-month wait to retake the test. All exams must be passed in a three-year window, and while the nine tests used to be given in a three-day period, they are now given one at a time, further dragging out the testing process.
While the profession may have begun to shrink on a national scale, local architects have more work than they need on their plates.
“There’s definitely an increase of architects here, but we don’t have enough,” Burt said. “There’s so much getting built on the East Coast right now, especially in the Southeast. People want to be near the water. The hurricanes didn’t scare them. And the baby boomers are retiring. We’re just seeing the first wave of retirees.”
An office all their own
Those are some of the things that are making Charleston an attractive place for architects to set up shop, and most are putting their unique stamp on office space they build or renovate for themselves.
While LS3P is a long-established firm here, the company has relatively new digs at 205 King St. in an addition to a building that also houses the Nexsen Pruet law firm.
“I really like the way our building sets on King Street,” Burt said. “It really sets into the elevation of the street. The back is very contemporary and most people don’t even come back here.”
Byers Design Group is housed in an old Sinclair gas station on Spring Street, a stucco structure built in the early 1930s.
“I enjoy sort of retrofitting things and readapting the use,” said owner/architect Sandy Byers. “I was just fascinated by this service station and it was in an up-and-coming area, the Spring Street and Cannon Street corridor.”
Byers is originally from the Upstate and was educated in Georgia, but always wanted to return to South Carolina. He is also licensed as a landscape architect and said there are many different challenges about working in the Charleston area, including the climate and flooding issues.
“Permitting and even planning is more complex here than it is in the Upstate,” Byers said.
Charles Muldrow, of Stubbs Muldrow Herin Architects Inc., said government regulations have greatly increased since his firm was founded in 1990.
“The process of getting a building permit is longer,” Muldrow said. “We’ve grown tremendously since 1990, but the building inspection department hasn’t added a lot of plan reviewers and, as a result, it takes a long time to get a building permit.”
Muldrow’s firm has done scores of commercial buildings on Daniel Island, a place that wasn’t being developed heavily a decade ago. Blackbaud Stadium, Hampton Inn, the Family Circle Cup clubhouse and Trident Medical Center are a few of the company’s Daniel Island projects.
Architectural challenges
Other firms are finding a boon in the number of new residents moving to Charleston.
Alan Jackson, of McKellar & Associates, said he has noticed a lot more residential architects and smaller, single-person firms working in the area.
“Kiawah Island, Seabrook Island and Wild Dunes are all pretty large growth markets for architects, and they require architects to be involved in residential design,” Jackson said. “Typically in residential construction, an architect isn’t required.”
Dot Brinson, a principle with McKellar & Associates, said growth in the market is not the only reason architects are coming to the area.
“Part of it is market-driven, part of it is liking to live here,” McKellar said.
Mark Clancy of Clancy Wells Architects Inc. has worked in Charleston for a while and has made it his permanent home. His partner, Steve Wells, is a native who wants to stay.
“Both of us like the coastal Carolina lifestyle,” Clancy said. “We like living here, we like working here and raising a family here. There’s a wide variety of work, diverse kinds of projects from resort homes to commercial to institutional work with the (Medical University of South Carolina) and the various other institutions here in town.”
Clancy’s firm has helped renovate vacant interior spaces at MUSC that are being readapted for new uses. The firm is also working on an addition to the Ohlandt Veterinary Clinic on James Island.
“There’s a lot of unique aspects of the environment here,” Clancy said. “On the barrier islands, for instance, there are unique soils that can be classified as liquefiable in case of an earthquake. We want to design things for the possibility that could happen again. You have to design to more stringent wind conditions and perhaps flooding as well. All those things are both appealing and a challenge of working in Charleston.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.
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