Huguley: Dueling icons = density cubed

A controversy is rising from the corner of College and South Main streets. A 15-story-tall controversy to be exact. The debate centers on a proposed 704-student apartment high rise the developer has named “Icon on Main.” A growing number of USC officials and alumni think “Eye Sore on Main” is more appropriate.

Too tall, too dense and too close to our iconic Horseshoe, thunders the university. No overshadowing our Horseshoe, cry alumni, echoing similar protests from Charlestonians when a cruise ship operator proposed dropping anchor at the iconic Battery.

But EdR, the Memphis development company proposing the 246-apartment building, is reluctant to compromise. Overlooking the venerable oaks of the historic Horseshoe is part of the marketing strategy, not to mention the profit margin.

To understand the ensuing dispute, it helps to know the meaning of dense. Dense is from the Greek, meaning “thick,” producing three definitions: packed tightly together, difficult to get through and slow to understand. All three apply to this situation.

The dense debate began when EdR petitioned the Columbia Board of Zoning Appeals to exempt its project from a limit on the number of students the building could house.

The city allows 150 beds per acre. With only 1.26 acres, EdR did the math and realized 189 beds would hardly cover the hefty sticker price paid for prime real estate, a block from both the iconic Horseshoe and iconic State House.

Density was key, and the only way to a profit was building up and up and up, until the private dorm inflated into the 15-story building with an attached 578-space garage. For 1.26 acres, that’s pretty dense and 515 beds over the legal limit.

USC’s concern is not only the dense idea of densely housing 704 students in a high-rise dorm, but also how dense a shadow the 15-story building would cast over the iconic Horseshoe.

The result is dueling shadow-density studies by USC and EdR, with photo-shopped renderings of shadows cast by the building during different solstices.

Overshadowed by the shadow dispute is a serious problem. Columbia Zoning Appeals board member Patricia Durkin understood it. Even without 704 students and a 578-car parking garage, “Isn’t there already a lot of traffic around there?”

Yes, the Horseshoe is dense with equally dense drivers.

No problem, the board was told. Traffic studies show no impact on Assembly or Blossom street during morning and afternoon drive times. A dense conclusion, as everyone knows rush hour on college campuses is called “class change.”

Observe Assembly and College streets around 11:20 a.m., when hordes of students stampede out of the Arnold School of Public Health, overrunning crosswalks to trudge uphill to the Horseshoe. It’s enough to hold up traffic, and sometimes does.

Then, watch class change from the corner of College and South Main. Students swarm like ants out of nearby academic buildings, jaywalking while scrolling their smartphones, hardly glancing up as commuting students race like NASCAR drivers around the block looking for vacant metered parking places.

Since the city added two new bus routes down College Street, it’s not unusual to see a college shuttle bus, followed by a city bus, followed by a UPS truck delivering to nearby university buildings. This scenario doesn’t include four shuttle busses parked in front of the Horseshoe, waiting to transport students to outlying apartment complexes.

When EdR did the math, it didn’t figure that 704 students equal 704 cars. A 578-space parking garage means 126 tenants with no parking place, and everyone knows only a student with a vehicle receives a USC admissions letter.

Thanks go to Ms. Durkin for being the sole zoning board member to vote against the EdR project. One hopes the city’s Design/Development Review Commission will not heed a member’s observation that “it will become a busy street, but I think it’s what the area needs.”

If EdR gets its way, here’s one suggestion: Drop “Icon” from the building’s name. The Horseshoe claimed it 214 years ago.

This story was originally published July 26, 2015 at 5:00 PM.