DEVELOPING THOUGHTS

When talking in class about developers just developing things in hopes that they can make out big versus when things are being designed for and with the community, I instantly thought of a project that I worked on as an intern during the summer of 2019. I thought this could bring some insight to others about how devastating designing for developers can be to a community—even when people doing the developing think that they are doing something good.

So, summer of 2019, I was working at a firm in Greenville, maybe I shouldn’t name them? Haha, but they had ties with a developer who happened to be planning out a large project really close to here, on the lake, in Seneca! Some people might have been out there, it is Newry Mill, an old, decrepit, abandoned (and kinda scary) textile plant. When you have old plants like this, there is usually a community that accompanies it... and similarly, this has a whole community surrounding it, people that had been there/ their families have been there since as early as the late 1800s.

The developer has this big project in mind for this old mill, a multifamily housing complex—way out in Seneca, in the middle of this old mill town. The whole time I was having to measure this giant building (in the middle of a SC summer), with the floors and roof caving in, I was thinking there is no way that they are going to develop this to be somewhat high-end apartments in the middle of this tiny run-down mill town. Well, this past weekend, my boyfriend and I drove out there just for fun because I’d caught wind that this project was actually catching some traction and construction had started on it… this place really is getting developed.

Since I had the pleasure of working on this at the very beginning of the pre-design and early design process, I got to witness the extreme hurt and sadness that went over the people of that town when they heard that this mill could possibly be overrun with brand new people, possibly Clemson students, who will just bring a lot of noise and movement to this otherwise very quiet and slow place. I thought that this was the perfect memory to look back on when thinking about what actually happens when people take over land and try to develop things where other people already are, and unfortunately—those people thought that they were having a say, and by the looks of it from last weekend, they really didn’t. Those people did not want this place to get developed, and I am honestly very surprised that it is.

I know this goes on everyday, has for hundreds of years and will continue as we move forward, but with a previous conversation that our class has had, I think that it is important that the architect tries to re-write the narrative on how these things go down. I feel it is our responsibility to share our thoughts with the developer and not just look for the paycheck.

I just wonder how this small community is going to react to a new way of life on their small two lane road, one entry, quite neighborhood.