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Opinions vary on Marion Square hotel plans
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
Plans are moving forward for a grand hotel with a rooftop pool to replace the abandoned pink cube that was formerly the Charleston County Library at the northwest corner of Marion Square.
The city’s Board of Architectural Review on May 30 voted 5-1 to defer preliminary approval of the Marion Square Hotel at 404 King St. so architects can review the board’s comments and give the plan some additional study. Only one board member wanted to send the project back for conceptual approval.
“I think the deferral was a positive,” said Yvonne Fortenberry, director of the city’s Design, Development and Preservation division. “The architects got a lot of positive comments from the board members and some good direction.”
Downtown area residents, officials from preservation organizations, developers, architects and city officials crammed a meeting room in the Charleston County School District Building on Calhoun Street for two hours to debate the design of the 185-room hotel, which would cap the corner of Marion Square across from St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church and next to the Hampton Inn.
Both those in support of the hotel plan and those who oppose it deem the site precious.
“I think the site I own on Marion Square is one of the finest hotel sites in America,” said Michael Bennett, president of the Bennett Hofford Co., which has owned the site for more than a decade. “This is an incredible city and that’s an incredible location. … I hope at the end of the day when that hotel is up and running, it will look like it’s been there 100 years and it will be one of the landmark buildings in Charleston.”
Officials from the Historic Charleston Foundation and the Preservation Society of Charleston said they did not oppose plans for a hotel on the site, but think the current design is too massive for the location. Their main concerns were about the height, scale and mass of the nine-story building, which is within limits of height restrictions set by the Board of Zoning Appeals.
“It’s crucial that we do not diminish the historic aspect that Marion Square has stood for over time,” said Robert Gurley, president of the Preservation Society of Charleston.
One of the changes in the latest design renderings was a lower cornice line, which architects said would make the roof of the structure appear lower
Bennett Hofford Co. is developing the project with local architectural firm Goff D’Antonio & Associates Ltd. and the New York architectural firm Fairfax & Sammons.
Bennett said it will take two years to build the hotel, and he is hoping his firm will resolve all approvals with the city by some time next year.
Some who voiced opinions at the meeting said the hotel would not complement the many existing historic buildings in the area that are three and four stories high. Others pointed out the number of tall buildings already in the area, including the Francis Marion Hotel.
Local architect Randolph Martz spoke in favor of the project and pointed out the neighboring the Hampton Inn and the Francis Marion Hotel are very different buildings in the same area.
“Both are historic structures, but they couldn’t be more different in their architectural approaches,” Martz said. “The ultimate goal should be harmony.”
Representatives of several downtown neighborhoods voiced their feelings about the proposed hotel, which got support from Mazyck-Wraggborough and opposition from Ansonborough. A Harleston Village representative said the neighborhood is divided on the plan.
Developer Wayne Nix, managing partner of Land South and the owner of an adjacent property at the corner of King and Hutson streets, said he thinks the new hotel will be the gateway to greatness for upper King Street.
“We know it will improve Hutson Street,” Nix said. “Nobody’s mentioned that. I believe that’s been a problem area and if you don’t believe it, just ask the police department.”
Board member Bob Stockton, who cast the vote against deferral and would have liked the project to move back to conceptual status, said the hotel’s design was too dominant for the location, which was once The Citadel’s parade grounds.
“It might be nice for people at the hotel pool to look across Marion Square, but we don’t want to look across the square at traveling salesmen in bathing suits,” Stockton said.
City Councilman Henry Fishburne said the debate over the Marion Square Hotel was similar to objections raised when the much larger Charleston Place Hotel was proposed in the 1980s.
“I see this as a signature building the way Charleston Place is,” Fishburne said. “If you listened to the tapes of the Charleston Place objections, I think you’d hear the same things you’re hearing today.”
Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. sent his support for the project in a letter in which he stated, “I am pleased to endorse support for a project that I believe will become one of Charleston’s landmarks.”
Some who attended the meeting seemed content with the fact that the circa-1960 library building is on its way out and that a classical design, rather than a contemporary structure, is being proposed.
“We really don’t want another Jewish Studies building or the pink squat library or another Addlestone library,” said Farley Clark with the citizens group Committee To Save The City.
“Please, let us this time get it right.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.
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