VOLUME 14 NUMBER 6 ■ COLUMBIABUSINESSREPORT.COM
Part of the
APRIL 12-25, 2021 ■ $2.25
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Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin (in blue suit) and Robert Hughes, president of Hughes Development Corp. (third from right), help break ground March 25 on the BullStreet District’s WestLawn building. (Photo/Sean Rayford)
Art on display
Artista Vista back in person and online this month. Page 2
Happy trails
SC Biz News CEO stepping down after 26 years. Page 5
NEW TWIST WestLawn building introducing mass-timber construction to BullStreet and S.C.
Change at the top New S.C. Chamber CEO wants to see state grow. Page 6
Back in business
Tyson Foods re-establishing Richland County operations. Page 7
INSIDE
Upfront................................. 2 SC Biz News Briefs................. 3 In Focus: Architecture, Engineering and Construction .......................................... 13 List: Homebuilders.............. 15 At Work............................... 21 Viewpoint............................23
By Melinda Waldrop
T
mwaldrop@scbiznews.com
he newest building planned at a bustling-again BullStreet District is unlike anything the 181-acre mixed-use development — or the state of South Carolina — has seen. The 79,000-square-foot WestLawn building, a mixed-use office building located behind the newly opened Starbucks, will be constructed of cross-laminated timber. The renewable commercial building material invented in the 1990s sequesters carbon and reduces reliance upon traditional construction materials such as concrete and steel as well as labor costs. Robert Hughes, president of Greenville-based BullStreet master developer Hughes Development Corp., said it will be the first private, mass-timber office building in
South Carolina, and it will join less than 400 in the U.S., including the first built in Montana in 2011. Columbia law firm Robinson Gray Stepp & Laffitte will occupy more than 29,000 square feet on the top two floors of the five-story building, which is slated to open in April 2022. The building will also feature four floors of Class A office space with a bottom floor dedicated to retail. “It’s very unique,” Ben Barfield, vice president of project contractor Brasfield & Gorrie, said during a March 25 groundbreaking for the WestLawn building. “It’s kind of a newer product that’s been coming out over the last five to 10 years. “This one has been unique because the tenant in general was wanting to see more of the wood, to kind of bring back that old feel, even though it’s newer construction. That was kind of the vision behind what Hughes had in
Branching out
Lexington Medical Center opens Northeast Columbia facility. Page 4
mind as well as Robinson Gray. Mostly it’s just bringing that old feel back into newer construction.” Barfield said Brasfield & Gorrie, a $4 billion company based in Birmingham, Ala., with offices throughout the Southeast, has overseen several mass-timber projects. “We’ve had our share of it, but it’s new to this area and especially this one site,” he said. The WestLawn building’s 10-foot windows will maximize natural light in the building, which will also overlook REI Co-op, BullStreet’s first national retailer which opened last summer. “It’s almost like a kit of Legos,” David Crabtree, design leader for Chicago-based architect Perkins & Will, said. “In some ways, it’s extraordinarily simple. A smaller team of people can put it together. You can put up a whole See WESTLAWN, Page 17