THE MASTER PLAN FOR HARBORSIDE, a 128-acre chunk of the 1,700-acre new urbanist town known as Lake Carolina, called for a mixture of commercial and residential development. But planners were loath to herald the community's grand entrance with a supermarket-anchored strip mall or big-box retail store.
After an intensive, 10-day charrette, Harborside became the only community in the Midlands area to allow zoning for urban housing in a suburban development. The mixed-use village now at the heart of this lakeside town has made all the difference. Foot traffic abounds in this hub for community activity, and commerce isn't contingent on driving.
With its quaint shopfronts and wide, tree-lined streets, Harborside resurrects the homespun feeling of a small town, with an appropriate dash of Southern charm. The architecture evokes historic antebellum homes, but assumes a 21st-century (read: energy-efficient) ethic in a blend of “low country” houses with big, wraparound verandas, and “up-country” Craftsman bungalows.
Category: Mixed-use community; Entrant/Developer: Lake Carolina Development, Columbia, S.C.; Builder: Harborside Builders Guild, Columbia; Architects: Studio A!, Charlotte, N.C.; Allison & Ramsey, Asheville, N.C.; Mock & Lenker/Richard Mock Designs, Columbia; Moser Design Group, Ridgeland, S.C.; Land planner: Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., Miami; Landscape architect: Southern Vistas, Columbia
Learn more about markets featured in this article: Charlotte, NC.
