Tobias & West was chosen to submit a Structural Property Condition Assessment in order to determine the current structural condition of the Kerrison Building that has been a retail anchor on King Street as Kerrison’s Dry Goods Company, a three-generation family business built in 1830. Tobias & West faced many structural challenges in addition to its age, and the fact that it was once ravaged by Hurricane Hugo and a fire in the same year. After these devastations, the Kerrison struggled to reopen. The chain of stores closed in the 1990s and has remained vacant ever since.
Tobias & West was glad to be a part of the new owner’s and architect’s reconstruction vision to revitalize this historic building located on the peninsula of downtown Charleston, yet preserve the beauty and history of this great landmark. In order to convert the vacant 2 and 3- story masonry building into residential apartments, modifications and strengthening upgrades were designed to rehabilitate the existing structure to handle the seismic and wind loads required by today’s current codes. Since this building is classified as “historic”, this was accomplished by using both the International Building Code and the International Existing Building Code.