A rendering of the side profile of the proposed rebuilt Gaillard.

Evan R. Thompson, executive director of the Preservation Society of Charleston, offers alternative solution instead of investing in a proposed $150 million revamp of the Gaillard Auditorium.  

These three ideas intrigued me most:

2) Build a new, world-class performance and exhibition hall at Union Pier. A facility that costs over $100 million can and should be a highly visible and proud architectural achievement. 

5) Incorporate the Bennett Rice Mill façade into the exterior of the new building. This magnificent piece of antebellum industrial architecture can be creatively saved

6) Re-establish the neighborhood fabric of Ansonborough. There are modern buildings worth saving, but the Gaillard is not one of them. The site of the present auditorium and adjacent surface parking lots could be subdivided once again into the single family residential lots that they had been for 200 years.