This is a story from the “drive-by” beat that I always wanted The State to create, but it never did. The idea would have been to satisfy people’s curiosity about things they drive by every day and wonder about. Today, we answer the question of, “What’s that thing coming out of that hole in the ground next to the Carolina Coliseum?”
That was the subject of Hildy Teegen’s talk today to the Columbia Rotary Club. (Disclosure, to the extent that it means anything: I invited Hildy to speak to the club, and introduced her.)
Speaking to Rotary. That's Club President J.T. Gandolfo in the foreground.
It’s the new Moore School of Business, of which Dr. Teegen is the dean. It’s intended, among other things, as the gateway to the Innovista, and should go a long way toward helping people understand that Innovista is NOT those two buildings everybody keeps obsessing over, but will constitute a transformation for that whole underdeveloped urban expanse from this location down to the river.
Innovista is conceived around the “live, work, play” concept, and the new Moore school has been designed to complement that. The key word Hildy keeps using to describe it is “permeable.” That goes from the literal sense of the rooftop garden, to the fact that it will be open to the whole community 24/7. In fact, she pointed out, it is architecturally impossible to close off the building.
One of the goals is for the building to achieve “net-zero” status, meaning its energy and carbon impact on the surrounding community will be nonexistent.
The building, which is to be completed in December 2013, will house the nation’s No. 1 international business master’s program and all of the school’s other business education programs — such as the night school that has just entered the top 25 in the U.S — except, of course the multiple distance-learning opportunities the school offers across SC and in Charlotte.
You can see the entire PowerPoint presentation here. And here are some pictures:
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Brad,
Speaking of business, is this story by Sic Willie correct relative to the leasing of floor space by the State of SC for the Commerce Dept from “The State”?
“Amazing …
A story like this being killed is almost unheard of in modern day journalism – although FITS readers may recall that The State has an interest in keeping Haley happy.
As we noted last May, The State had been having a bear of a time filling office space at its spacious three-story headquarters in downtown Columbia, S.C.
Who stepped in to help the paper out with that problem? Haley’s Commerce Department – which earlier this year used at least $500,000 in tax dollars to help secure a new rental tenant for the paper. The State‘s publisher, Henry Haitz, has repeatedly declined to discuss how much money his paper stands to make off of the deal, but we’re told it’s a pretty penny.”
http://www.fitsnews.com/2012/07/23/the-incredible-disappearing-nikki-haley-nepotism-story/
I have no idea. Henry doesn’t keep me in the loop on his real estate deals…
The only thing I have reason to believe is incorrect (factually, that is, as opposed to assessing the quality of the speculation) is that the story has been “killed.” What I think is happening is that it’s just being held back a ridiculously long time while The State tries to nail down a couple of key facts.
In any case, it’s embarrassing. The State had a perfectly publishable story (just needed a little editing) ready last week — we all saw it. At this point, there’s no way the paper looks good, unless by waiting it’s able to unleash some surprising aspect of the story that has not yet come to light. Which SEEMS unlikely at this point…
Oh, and as long as we’re engaging in conjecture about the office space — sounds to me like Bobby Hitt got homesick for Shop Road. After all, he and I used to work there together, from 1988-91.
Odd … I can’t comment …
Oh great. NOW the comment appears.
Well. I created and wrote exactly the same type of feature for a decade or so at my paper. I just can’t post a link to it, for some reason.
Mystifying, and aside from a purpose other than casting aspersions without merit, let me summarize what can be the only intent:
Legitimizing readers of FITS, whose innuendos were totally discredited and embarrassingly exposed as left-wing drivel during Haley’s last successful election cycle.
I guess lawyers have nothing better to do.
Thanks Brad. Just thought you may be aware of this as you’re one of the most knowledgeable individuals on what’s happening in Columbia.
FITS News is left wing?
Could there possibly be a bigger waste of money than this monstrocity. The old business building was completed in phases between 1973 and 1979. Given the staggering increase in tuition at USC this is just outrageous.
JC, what are your drinking?
Good post. I was actually wondering what that hole in the ground was going to be.
I learned something today.
Trying to get a sense of where this is located. It looks like it’s being built on the Coliseum’s far-side parking lot, across from the World’s Ugliest Hotel?
That’s a faculty & staff lot, IIRC. They’re going to lose a whole heck of a lot of parking by putting a building there.
But on the plus side, maybe this will encourage someone to repaint the hotel’s facade in less eye-searing colors.
No, the hotel is across from the Coliseum. This is more across from the Methodist church.
It’s directly across from the Koger Center, on Greene Street between Assembly and Park. The entire area of the Coliseum, USC parking lots, and Colonial Center used to be an African American neighborhood (Ward One)until USC and the Columbia Housing Authority implemented urban renewal to move them out and build the Coliseum. Some of the people displaced actually work for the University in Facilities and Custodial Services. If you want to see the area as the neighborhood go to the South Caroliniana Library’s Joseph Winter collection.
http://library.sc.edu/digital/collections/jwp/
It’s across Greene Street from the Koger Center.
I like the colors on the Courtyard Hotel. Cheery! Does everything have to be beige or red brick?
Rose, the Coliseum has been there so long that it couldn’t have displaced “an African American neighborhood.” In fact, it predates full acceptance of “black,” and gets us to “negro neighborhood.”
Just to be pedantic, and avoid anachronism…