Clemson students build community pavilion and school garden in Charleston

The School of Architecture’s Architecture + communityBUILD (A+cB) studio recently designed, built and held a ribbon cutting for a new community pavilion and school garden in Charleston.

In partnership with the Green Heart Project, the Charleston Parks Conservancy and the City of Charleston, the community pavilion and garden were built at Eric Cornelius Singleton II Park.

The project will provide Meeting Street Academy students with access to an outdoor pavilion with built-in picnic tables, countertops, a garden storage shed and a garden where students will be able to learn more about the food they eat and give them experiential opportunities.

“I cannot tell you enough how important it is to give students opportunities with experiential learning, and the magic happens when experiential learning collides with strong, rigorous academics,” shared Molly Grant, the director of special projects at Meeting Street  Academy. “And that is what Meeting Street Academy is all about. So I am thrilled that we were part of this project.”

“This project probably touched the hands of around 40 students,” explained David Pastre, the director of the Clemson Design Center in Charleston. “But out of those 40 students, 15 A+cB certificate students led the design work.”

According to Pastre, those students designed the building, created construction documents and fabricated and installed all parts and pieces, including pouring all the concrete.

“Clemson is a land grant institution, and this project fell right in line with that,” Pastre said. “This project lets us give back to the community and make a difference in Charleston. It’s also a service-learning opportunity, so not only are we giving back to the community, but this is also an opportunity for our students to learn and work alongside professionals and community members in creating needed places in our community.”

Pastre explained that the A+cB program brought the project to fruition with the help of Seamon Whiteside, EM Structural, and other corporate and non-profit partners.

“They’re a huge support to us,” said Pastre. “We couldn’t have made this happen without them.”

The Green Heart Project fundraised to pay for the majority of the project, and the City of Charleston works with the Clemson Design Center on projects annually.

Five Clemson alumni who were part of the original design team were in attendance at the ribbon cutting on November 19, 2024. They expressed that seeing their hard work finally finished means a lot.

“The last two weeks of the semester, we came out, and we started putting it up; we got kind of a skeleton going, and people started coming up and asking us what was going on, and that’s when it really started to feel really special, and now with all the students coming in, it’s incredible,” explained Architecture alumnus Payton Davy.

Another alumnus, Kevin Arnold, explained that seeing something they worked on in college turn into a real project that the Charleston community will use and enjoy was extremely rewarding.