Mayor Joe Riley of Charleston, South Carolina, now in his tenth term, tells the story of when he tried to convince a local architect to make a new parking garage look instead like a traditional Charleston building. “We learned in school that form follows function,” the architect said, “so this building needs to look like a garage.” “Yes, I learned that too,” replied the mayor. “We’re just not going to do that in Charleston.” That building now graces East Bay Street, where it does three important things right. First, it places high-ceilinged commercial space on the ground floor directly against
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