Sinking City 111 | Charleston, SC | May - June 2020

Our homage to Rickey Gates and his audacious “Every Single Street” Project, this effort was conceived as a dance between learning what was, discovering what is, and acknowledging what will be lost.

This was a partial effort with particular purpose. Part history paper, part cartography exercise, this 111 mile ultra ramble followed the City’s evolution and expansion from its founding in 1670 to the “modern” extent of its famous historic peninsula, mapped around 1869. This is the Charleston of both fact and fiction. The Charleston that’s consistently lauded as the “best place to visit.” The Charleston that is slowly, but surely, going under water.

We thought it appropriate on the 350th anniversary of the city’s founding to take a spin around the historic boroughs, take in the unmistakeable patina, and take stock of what is inevitably going to change in the coming decades. Sea level rise has already shaped the way lives are lived here, and its impacts will only accelerate. If there is agreement on anything, it’s that no one is exactly sure what to do about the region’s relationship with a rising tide. Sinking City is a conversation starter, a keyhole glimpse into a past that many current residents of Charleston know little if anything about, and a chance to see if in learning a bit more about our past we can better answer questions about our future.