Preserving historical integrity is top of mind for many in the Palmetto State, with valuable architectural legacies found in countless communities. Many cities and towns utilize architectural or design review boards to uphold specific zoning ordinances.
Two such cities that have made a strong commitment to improving and maintaining historic preservation are the City of Camden, with its council-appointed Historic Landmarks Commission, and the City of Columbia, which has operated a Design/Development and Review Commission.
“Our historic Landmarks Commission was established to try to preserve some of the historic structures in town,” said Shawn Putnam, Camden’s director of planning and development. “All of our jurisdictional area is located within the City of Camden National Register [of Historic Places] historic district, so it was already established as a historic area. At that time, city council felt the need to put [the commission] in place to help protect the mostly residential buildings downtown.”
He explained that the commission has jurisdiction over a list of addresses in the historic district, and any proposed projects that would alter the exteriors of those properties must be reviewed for adherence to Camden’s design guidelines.
“If it’s a project that can be seen from the street and is not general maintenance, it has to be approved by the commission — otherwise it can be approved at the staff level,” he added.
In his role as the liaison to the commission, Putnam works with the five council-appointed members to ensure project applications meet the design guidelines.
“We have a set of design guidelines that address renovation work to existing buildings,” he said. “There are also separate sections for rehabilitation of residential structures and commercial structures; then there are sections on new construction within historic districts.”
Camden City Council first established the design guidelines in the 1990s, and they received a later update in 2014.
“The way our commission is set up is, anything that falls under the jurisdiction of that ordinance is reviewed by the commission,” Putnam said.
He added that a property owner of a non-designated property can apply to have their property designated historic, in which case the application is reviewed by the commission and then it is forwarded to city council with a recommendation, although this has only been done a few times.
One of the more recent commercial projects reviewed by the commission is the property that was first built as Camden’s opera house in the 19th century, but which was demolished almost entirely in the 1960s.
“The only part that remained was the 20-foot by 20-foot clock tower part of the building, and then another building was rebuilt [around it],” Putnam said. “The city ended up owning the building and we worked with a development group in order from them to purchase it from us and convert it into a boutique hotel.”
Putnam said that the hotel project is currently under construction and is expected it to be completed by late 2026.
Over in the City of Columbia, a design commission has been established for decades, according to Principal Planner Amy Moore, who has been doing preservation work for the city for more than 22 years.
Historically, the board has been the Design Development and Review Commission, also known as the D/DRC, with nine members appointed by city council.
It has had some of its positions filled by people in particular fields, which include a lawyer, a planner, a real estate professional and architects. In addition to the set positions, there are a few community positions available for those interested in preservation or urban design.
The design review board has reviewed urban projects as well as preservation projects, but under a splitting of duties recently approved by city council, there will be one board just for urban design, and another for preservation projects.
The City of Columbia has 15 historic districts, Moore said, of which all but one is residential.
“I feel like our residential districts are very strong in terms of maintaining the visual character and the feeling of the area when it was built. It brings a unique character to the city — all of those individual neighborhoods, which have had restrained change — not no change, but planned change; they’ve maintained their character I think that the demand for housing in those areas is high because people love how they look and how they feel,” she said.
“So, it’s not just the visual character that the neighborhood maintained, but also the sense of community I think can also happen as a result of that — people just want to stay — and then they form these tight communities, if you will,” Moore said.
As for downtown Columbia, she noted that the commercial historic district known as the Congaree Vista, or more commonly, simply the Vista, is flourishing with development.
“People want to be there because it’s not like any other place; the potential to draw people in, to draw in business, to draw people downtown, is great,” she said.
Other projects of note include those along Main Street.
“We’ve used tax incentives to enable a lot of rehabilitations on our older buildings on Main Street, and that is having an enormous effect on the number of businesses who want to be there and the character of the area,” said Moore. “The ability of preservation to stimulate business and to anchor it is huge, because people really do want that character, and they want that for their business.”
Columbia has three urban design districts as well — the City Center, the North Main Corridor, and Five Points.
“There are guidelines for each of those districts, too, but they’re not preservation guidelines. The urban design guidelines are really there to ensure that what gets built or what gets changed continues to emphasize the street and the pedestrian experience and engage passers-by on street level: storefronts, street furniture, sidewalks, things like that, because we want a vibrant city,” she said. “It is so important to have great guidelines and to have those in place as things develop to make sure that we continue to provide that, and that is where preservation and urban design go hand in glove. Historic buildings naturally provide those kind of experiences.”
Across South Carolina, cities and towns are using the guidance from architectural and design review boards to maintain historical integrity of existing structures, and to ensure architectural coherence of future development. Through the use of these practices, communities are benefiting from the architectural legacies which will ensure consistency for generations to come.