Building on Upper King a nod to city, yet novel

As the new owners of 487 King St. plotted what to do with their small, long-neglected property between Ann and Mary streets, they got some bad news.

The building's late 19th-century brick storefront, which had a certain charm even if its window openings revealed a tree growing up in the middle of the lot, was in pretty bad shape.

Architect Whitney Powers of Studio A says the original idea was to preserve that facade and build something contemporary just behind it.

"There was a lot of interest in seeing that happen," she says, but it didn't. "We were going to use that facade, but it was so structurally unsound it became a hazard. We thought it was going to fall into the street."

Instead, Powers ended up designing one of the most novel buildings on Upper King — one bound to trigger arguments about whether it fits into the city.

Of course, Powers believes it does.

"Our intention was to put a new building on King Street that was part of the fabric of the overall city with its texture and materials but not ashamed or embarrassed about being new," she says. "It's not meant to be an alien. It was meant to be a storefront on King — not a transplant from some other place inserting itself."

Even though 487 King is a narrow lot (18 feet wide in the front, just 11 feet wide in back), the building has a side courtyard, an indention framed partly by a wall of glass blocks that allows more light into the building's interior.

The facade is constructed of brick and stucco, a pretty traditional look, but it also features a metal mesh designed to hold signs for whatever office or business locates there — and a metal canopy that shades the third-floor deck belonging to the residence there.

The most contemporary aspect of its look might be the large single window at the second-floor level, though a closer inspection of King Street shows this has several precedents up and down the street.

While the building has only about 4,000 square feet, it's designed to include a residence on the upper two floors, commercial space on the first and a small office space on the second.

While the retail space seems like many others on King, the residence offers great views — indoor and outdoor —of King and St. Philip streets.

Its three-story height matches up with the two buildings to the north, and Powers notes its one-story-tall southern neighbor could be redeveloped and enlarged one day.

Surely many people will look at 487 King and find it jarring compared to the nearby buildings, which are broken into the more historic, traditional rhythm of three windows per floor on the upper floors. But others are sure to enjoy a building with a newer look — even if that newer look isn't as new as some might think.

Since its construction was completed, I've heard no complaints or slights about it, possibly because of its relatively small size. "Because of its scale — it's pretty diminutive — it doesn't aggressively present itself," Powers says.

The most interesting test of its quality, as with all buildings, will be whether people continue to value and preserve it once its novelty wears off. Powers says that's what it was designed for.

"There was really an interest in building something that was going to be on King Street for as long as anything was going to be on King Street," she says.

Reach Robert Behre at 937-5771, by fax at 937-5579, by e-mail at rbehre@post andcourier.com or by mail at 134 Columbus St., Charleston, SC 29403.