Title: 22 West Edge
Location of Proejct: Charleston, SC
Project Completion Date: 06/2022
Firm Name: Perkins and Will

Short Description: One of Charleston’s few modern Class-A Office tower, the all-glass 22 WestEdge is the tallest office building in the Charleston skyline at 125 feet tall with terrace views of the Ashley River. The 161,000 sf office/lab and innovation space is home to MUSC and SCRA and designed to attract tenants from the biotech and life science industries.

Architect's Statement: In partnership with the City of Charleston, the WestEdge Foundation, Gateway Development Services, and the Medical University of South Carolina Foundation,
WestEdge was designed as the anchor office tower for the new research and innovation district on Charleston’s west side. Guided by the vision established by Charleston’s longtime Mayor, Joe Riley, WestEdge’s goal was to develop the city’s westside and connect a mixed-used innovation district to the Medical University of South Carolina campus via a pedestrian bridge. The synergy would foster a virtuous cycle of attracting the best and brightest to a neighborhood they would in turn, invest back into the community and call home.

Responding to the mixed-use program and the coastal context, the architecture adheres to the masterplan design guidelines, also created by the same design firm. The building marries the scale of historic Charleston, to the contemporary demands for daylight,water views, and resilience to Lowcountry climate events. Following the WestEdge Master Plan design guidelines, the design team proportioned the building setback to the width of the street, so the street-level restaurant and retail feel like historic King Street.

The architectural expression results from the coastal context and the district’s neighboring marina. The height and mass of the building reference the sculptural qualities of the city’s majestic Arthur Ravenel Bridge. The building glass skinningtakes on the warm tonal quality of the wood hulls floating in the Ashley River, and the metal work holding up the entrance canopy abstracts the marina boats’ rigging. The Lowcountry inspiration carries inside with the warmth and vibrancy of the materials and watery forms. The building lobby is designed to be an active, useful space by providing multiple seating venues that employees and visitors can work or meet at and grab coffee from the café in the building.

This diligence and context proved to be beneficial in gaining the approval for the building from the Charleston Board of Architectural Review in one meeting. The authority recognized that while modern and contemporary, the building provides a relevant new thread in the fabric of the City of Charleston.

The building is sited on a landfill, in a seismic zone, and in a floodplain prone to hurricanes. To design for resilience, the design team raised the street a foot above the floodplain, so the whole district could rest on a concrete bridge over the low ground. WestEdge was built tall over a short basement, providing a crawl space to manage flooding.