2023 Preservation Award | 1215 Shop Road
Friday, May 12th 2023
WINNER | Preservation, Rehabilitation, or Restoration
(Commercial, Institutional, Rental, or Municipal)
1215 Shop Road
Hood Construction Company, Inc. — Property Owner
Garvin Design Group — Architect & Preservation Consultant
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Historically used by many companies—the Citadel Shirt Corporation, Williamson Shirt Company, Bud Berman Manufacturing, Carolina Area Support Center, and finally Morris Furniture—1215 Shop Road stood vacant for several years. A single-story brick building with a modified rectangular plan and barrel-vaulted ceilings, this light-industrial building was constructed in 1950 with subsequent additions made around 1954 and between 1955 and 1959. While these additions infilled select door and window openings, the original building remained largely intact, retaining its stepped parapet façade, barrel vaulted ceilings, bowstring trusses, steel casement windows, and open floor plan original to its use as a garment manufacturing facility. Thanks to its successive uses as a garment manufacturing facility and warehouse, the property to maintained a remarkable amount of historic integrity that even includes boiler rooms that point to its significance as one of the first shirt manufacturing buildings in the United States to use radiant heat.
When Hood Construction Company, Inc. selected this facility to be its new home, its commitment to preserving the historic features of the building’s past was placed front and center. The re-imagined facility, crafted by Garvin Design Group, now boasts a central, circular hallway layout that wraps around the centrally located conference and training rooms. Private offices are placed along the outside walls to take advantage of the abundant natural light from the restored original windows, and large expanses of glass and interior storefront systems rise to just below the preserved trusses to provide sightliness throughout the building—an important step in maintaining the structure’s historic sense of openness. Ultimately, the design amplifies the barrel-vaulted ceilings’ aesthetic impact, and the open, loft feel of the interior space serves as a constant reminder of the building’s past.
Preservation Award Plaque
While May is Preservation Month, Historic Columbia would like to encourage the community to recognize the significance of these award-winning projects all year. To that end, we have established a Preservation Plaque program. These plaques are designed for and available to past Preservation Award recipients.