February 15, 2008
City leaders brainstorm riverfront designs
High-tech map imaging program brings citizens, officials to design table
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One person wants to extend the Boulevard walkway up Elk River to the Civic Center. Another thinks the riverfront district would be a great place to build housing. Yet another suggested paddleboats and canoes, for an active lifestyle.

More than a dozen private citizens and city officials gathered at Charleston City Hall Thursday to share ideas for improving a roughly 10-block downtown area near the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha rivers.

Architects from Silling Associates are holding three such meetings, plus another set of Web-based sessions, to demonstrate new software tools they've adopted. They say the tools, called BIM (Building Information Models), will revolutionize the design and construction industry.

Following a lengthy explanation of the technology, Mike Bordenaro asked people what they'd like to see at the riverfront.

"Housing," said Susie Salisbury, a City Council member and vice president of the Charleston Area Alliance. "It's at the top of our radar screen right now, trying to get more housing downtown. And since you asked about business, we need a grocery store."

Within moments, an eight-story housing complex appeared on computer screens throughout the room. Working remotely, BIM expert Finith Jernigan took the ideas he heard and drew them onto a Google Earth map of Charleston.

In an exercise last week, his first exposure to the Charleston riverfront district, Jernigan plopped down templates of fire stations  - seven in all. He used fire stations because he had them handy from a previous project.

"Of course you don't want seven fire stations downtown," Bordenaro said. "This week [Jernigan] worked with Silling Associates for about 40 minutes [and another 40 minutes on his own]."

He showed the results: Three-dimensional models of the federal courthouse, the Municipal Auditorium and the Spilman Center, all in their proper sites on the Google Earth map, instead of simple outlines. Designers might use that information to determine the location of the shadow from the courthouse on an adjacent site, Bordenaro said.

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