A Penny Well Spent

Memminger Elementary School

Turns out it’s worth a lot, if it comes in the form of the One Cent Sales Tax implemented by Charleston County in 2010. Those pennies have added up to a $450 million, 5-year building program funding a number of public projects, starting with the recapitalization of 4 historic Charleston school campuses. Historic Memminger Elementary is among these 4.

The new 77,000 SF Memminger School replaced an outdated and seismically unsafe 1950’s facility on Beaufain Street in the heart of Charleston’s historic downtown. Accommodating 500 students in grades K-6, the new building opened just in time for the start of the 2013 school year. Administrators, staff, and students are all giving the building high marks. “LS3P has done an outstanding job designing the school to support its instructional mission in a way that pays homage to the historical schools that formerly occupied the campus,” states Bill Lewis, Chief Operating Officer for Capital Programs for Charleston County’s School District. “Memminger is now a point of pride in the community and the whole City of Charleston.”