In a past life, I drove in to London each day to work. Drive or take the train, the 2-hour commute took about the same time either way and I prefer my own company and the solitude of my thoughts. Entering the outskirts of the city I’d watch the buildings getting higher and closer together, firstly Croyden, in towards Brixton, Lambeth and the seat of power at Westminster then out towards Poplar and the Shipping District on EC3. I met my wife there at Guildhall and romanced her under the midnight streetlights of an empty Thames embankment. One of the attractions of our beautiful city of Charleston is its European feel. Its intimacy and architecture, its central focus, frequented sidewalks and cafés. It’s a little bit of Europe 4000 miles from family and friends in Wales. It’s now our first home, not our second.
We recently purchased the Gadsden House on East Bay Street, a 1-block walk in from scenic Charleston harbor. The rear of the home is Alexander Street. This is a little known street in Charleston, so we took the opportunity to walk around this upper part of Ansonborough. On the other side of Alexander Street, bordered by George Street, is the Gaillard Center. Known previously as a rather uninteresting piece of 1970’s architecture, functional but not really suited to the elegance of Charleston. The Gaillard is currently undergoing a major renovation. The new neo-classical Gaillard when completed in April 2015, will be a superior performance hall, elegant convention and banquet space, and will provide a catalyst for arts education of school-children. This is intended to be a hub of artistic, intellectual, and civic activity. It will become the central hub for Charleston’s renowned Spoleto Festival USA, the annual arts festival held for 17 days in May-June.
I’ll have you know that I was simply dumb struck by the new development. The foresight of design on display is rather humbling. They are building a space not for us who will enjoy it for a few decades at most. This is meant for our descendants; our grandchildren and their grandchildren. It’s simply beautiful and will rival anything I’ve seen from London to Paris to Berlin and beyond. Classic grand architecture on a truly civilized city scale.
Now my drive to work is 20 minutes from Johns Island to our offices on 95 Broad St., across the lowland salt marshes in beautiful fall weather. As I pass the soon to be completed Gaillard Center I am less nostalgic for the grandeur of Europe’s iconic architecture.
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