Winslow’s Word: April 2024

Posted: April 19, 2024

Winslow Hastie, President & CEO

We are thrilled to have wrapped up an extremely successful spring season of the newly rebranded Charleston Festival! This year, we launched a new, expanded lecture series, a Festival Music Series at the historic Riviera Theater, an incredible show of Jill Hooper’s art—Windows into Another World—with special programming at the Aiken-Rhett House, and a diverse offering of workshops and demonstrations around town. Thank you to all our sponsors, hosts, homeowners, volunteers, experts, and staff that worked together to educate locals and visitors about what makes Charleston so special! This year we worked hard to mitigate our impact on the historic district by reducing numbers on tours, spreading events across the peninsula, and presenting programming that would entice both residents and out-of-towners.

2023 Charter Day Award Winner Andrea Hazel with Winslow Hastie, CEO, and Anne Blessing, Board Chair

On April 25^th at 6pm we will host our annual Charter Day awards ceremony at First Baptist Church downtown. This is one of the highlights of our year when we get to celebrate amazing projects, craftspeople, and advocates that best showcase HCF’s preservation mission. The event is free and open to the public and culminates in a garden reception at the Nathaniel Russell House across the street, where we gather and toast the award winners. It is a wonderful event and always serves as an inspiring reminder to appreciate the range of preservation work happening around the Lowcountry.

Also, please mark your calendars for our annual Advocacy Forum on May 13th , 6pm, at The Charleston Museum! To celebrate Preservation Month, we will be hosting a moderated panel discussion focused on the critical ingredients that make up world-class waterfront redevelopment. While this conversation will certainly be had within the context of Union Pier, we want to widen our perspective to better understand best practices in large-scale and complex waterfront development both in this country and abroad. We are excited to have Mayor William Cogswell, Christian Sottile (architect and preservationist), and Stefanos Polyzoides (architect and urban planner) join in this important exchange. With the news of Union Pier being purchased by local businessman Ben Navarro, we want to keep up the positive momentum and community engagement, sharing insights that can help inform a renewed planning process for this public-private partnership. It is our goal to keep our sights high and aspirational, while also grounding those goals in creative solutions that ensure the project will become a reality, creating a dynamic new district for our city

Union Pier site, courtesy of Post & Courier