Title: USCG Base Charleston Multifamily Housing
Location of Proejct: North Charleston, SC
Project Completion Date: 05/08/22
Firm Name:

Short Description: Located along the Cooper River in North Charleston, SC, the proposed multifamily housing at United States Coast Guard Base Charleston addresses the imperative of building prototypes for resilient coastal settlements. The design is the result of collaborative work completed in coordination with the demands and expectations of the USCG. Our building is a resilient home for families away from the bustling activity of the base that showcases material performance and contextual experience, is communal and engaging, and harbors ecological dwelling. From the building's parts to whole, the design leverages contemporary quantitative demands to enhance the qualitative experience of home.

Architect's Statement: Our design for multifamily housing at the United States Coast Guard Base Charleston is a resilient home of 36 dwelling units, which provide 82 bedrooms total across a diversity of apartment types ranging from studios to two-level, townhouse-style units. The Department of Defense’s new objectives for mitigating the effects of climate change required us to plan the building inside and out to be responsive to the surrounding environment and ecology. Additionally, in response to the DoD requirement to explore sustainable construction systems, the building combines a variety of mass timber products with existing methods of construction to display the opportunities and constraints of this technology. However, our multifamily housing design does not allow the quantitative demands of the DoD to hinder the qualitative goal of providing a sense of home that is essential to the close-knit community of the USCG. Instead, through thoughtful planning and detailing, the design leverages the quantitative demands to enhance the qualitative experience in every instance.

Beginning with the site, the program, divided between dwelling units and community spaces, is lifted one level above the existing grade on top of a concrete podium. This move is in response to planning requirements by FEMA due to the building being located in an area with a high base flood elevation. Within the concrete podium is shared parking for apartments and several private garages for the townhouse-style units. By placing parking beneath the housing, we open up more of the site for natural flood mitigation strategies such as bioswales, which form a pleasant pedestrian experience. Most of all, the site design takes advantage of the elevation shift between existing grade and the first level with the creation of a hill leading pedestrians into the heart of the building–a community garden.

Seen from the community garden, the building lassos around creating a courtyard upon which all dwelling units look into. The overall layout of the dwelling units takes inspiration from the historic precedent of the Charleston single house and its contemporary derivatives by maximizing cross-ventilation and minimizing solar heat gain. These effects are accomplished by apartments having generous west or south-facing egress balconies that provide shade from the harshest sunlight and also capture the cool southwest breeze during North Charleston’s overheating period. Not only do the balconies reduce energy consumption for cooling loads and ventilation, but they function as shared porches for the building’s community to relax and convene too.

Structurally, the balconies are suspended via steel columns hanging from glulam beams located at the upper and lower roof levels. Steel was chosen for these areas because of exposure to the elements and the need for a material that performs well in tension. The glulam beams of the roof sit on top of “wood boxes” composed of cross-laminated timber (CLT) walls and glulam members that support dowel-laminated timber (DLT) floors. CLT is selected for walls due to its ability to act in two-directions, thus working efficiently for the building’s shear walls. Non-load bearing walls are framed with dimensional lumber for economy and efficiency of construction. For the floor panels, DLT is selected due to its smaller sectional depth compared to other mass timber products across similar spans. Higher ceilings increase efficiency of cross-ventilation, and the minimized sectional depth of the DLT makes this possible. Additionally, the DLT floor panels are pre-manufactured with acoustic ribbing to reduce noise between dwellings and are exposed to offer the associated health benefits of wood. All loads are transferred to the concrete podium and moment frames, which exist at levels prone to flooding, and then to foundations that utilize piles to stabilize the building in the site’s muddy soil conditions.

In the design of the wall sections and details, the project reveals itself as communal and engaging, a showcase for material performance and contextual experience, and a harbor for ecological dwelling. At selected moments, the building’s structural system is exposed to the exterior, therefore connecting visually with the site’s industrial context. The primary skin of the building is a corrugated metal rainscreen punctured with operable windows for cross-ventilation and set in aluminum boxes that help to shade against harsh sunlight. Subtracted thresholds where occupants relax and talk to neighbors are clad in stained cypress, providing a warm, friendly atmosphere to these spaces. The threshold spaces also have wide, folding patio doors which open up the interior living spaces to the outside, but with full lites of opaque polycarbonate to give privacy when closed. Polycarbonate is also used for the curtain walls containing the gym at the north corner to maximize daylight and create visual interest. All materials used for the building’s skin are low maintenance and durable against the elements.

Through thoughtful planning and detailing, the design leverages contemporary quantitative demands to enhance the overall qualitative experience to create a resilient home for USCG families.