THE BENNETT HOTEL

Charleston, SC

Of the many sketches I’ve done over the years, this was the first done of a building for which I was the architect. I had turned down the commission initially, thinking it too ambitious and complex. A litany of architects had preceded me, each falling by the way for different reasons. The project began a few decades ago with the acquisition of the old city library, and a dream to build the finest hotel in Charleston. The library was demolished, but the building’s pink marble skin was salvaged for later use in the new lobby bar. Developer / hotelier Mike Bennett first engaged Fairfax & Sammons, a New York firm specializing in historic replication design. One might say they were the designers of the hotel we see standing today. But so much is owed to its historic inspiration and specific reference to the grand Italian Palladian style. It is a building that one might expect to see on some historic street of Europe. But it fits so well where is resides today in Charleston. A local architect followed, assigned to move the project through the city approval process. But the project was slapped with a lawsuit from the city, attempting to block the building’s 9-story height. Bennett fought the lawsuit and prevailed at the State Supreme Court twelve years later, winning the right to develop the hotel as designed. By that time, LPB had established a relation with Bennett, and had designed a number of other hotels for him in Charleston and Savannah. So, we assumed the architect role in 2009, and carried the project to completion in 2020.

The complexity of the design was as expected. Bennett’s demand for near perfection in the work was relentless. The need to maximize ceiling height while staying within the court-mandated building height, the shallow water table, the toothpaste-quality soils and the earthquake / hurricane-prone location all combined for the perfect storm. But, as with all complex projects, when we often felt defeated with impossible challenges, the calendar pages flipped by, and the problems eventually all resolved. The hotel meets all expectations, and the city that once resisted the hotel now embraces it. Conde Nast Traveler recently recognized the Bennett Hotel as “one of the best new hotels in the world.” A fair distinction.