Reading Between the Lines of Design

Our team at Eberly & Collard Public Relations prides itself on being experts within the home, garden, architecture, design, construction, and agribusiness industries. Each of our team members put forth a great effort to stay on top of industry trends, events, news, and developments in order to benefit our clients and media contacts.

Since a specialty of ours includes the trio of architecture, design-build and construction publicity, we stay focused on commercial, residential, public space, civic, and other designed or engineered developments. This enables our team of publicists to target the right media outlets to promote and publicize our clients, their services and project work.

In order to enhance their brand images and reputations, we consistently review case-studies and write articles- most of which are, in turn, made available to trade and mainstream publication editors. We also write about design-build projects from a number of sources- including clients, non-clients, friends and peers in the industry, and others.

Today’s blog post features a brief case-study of a particularly impressive development in the field of commercial contracting that our team learned about last week. Choate Construction Company, one of the largest and most reputable general contracting firms in the Southeast, successfully undertook the building and design of the St. Helena Branch Library on St. Helena Island, which is in South Carolina. Located on a National Historic District Landmark, the library sits upon land that marks the site of one of the country’s first schools for freed slaves. The new one-story, multi-purpose building contains story and activity rooms for children, interactive media rooms, public computer labs, individual study rooms, lounges, and a teen center, café, community meeting room, and conference room.

       Photo Credit: Choate Construction Company

Perhaps most notable and a true highlight of the project, the Gullah Geechee Collection room pays tribute to the area’s rich history and tradition. Celebrating the regional Gullah heritage, this unique room is constructed of a bamboo basket weave membrane over wooden rib-and-beam ship construction framing.

In case you live and work outside the Southeast, the Gullah are descendants of slaves who live in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina and Georgia, which includes both the coastal plain and the beautiful Sea Islands.

The meaning behind this subtle design theme may not be immediately obvious to everyone. Though, it accomplishes what most good design should do. It gives rise to learning about the region and culture in which the structure has been imbued.

Several sustainable elements were also included in this project such as recycled materials, recycling construction waste, and natural lighting. Due to Choate Construction Company’s sustainable efforts, the building is hoping to be approved for LEED Silver certification.

If you’re as impressed with this new library by Choate Construction Company as we are, follow the link below to learn more about the company and its variety of services and awe-inspiring portfolio. http://www.choateco.com.