ACBA’s contribution to the Charleston community.

How Charleston Preservationists Are Reinterpreting the Past to Forge a Brighter Future

The next chapter of the Holy City's story might be richer still.

ACBA's very own, Christina Butler, is among the impressive group of 25 Leaders in Traditional Design and Historic Preservation.

This feature in Traditional Building Magazine shows ACBA staff continue to be thought leaders in their fields.

“Three Charleston-trained carpenters will play a pivotal role in restoring and revitalizing the first president’s estate.”

Post and Courier article highlighting ACBA alumni and their impact on the current work at Mt. Vernon.

Charleston City Paper takes time to explore the views of a small group with a unique perspective on their education and future work in the field.

“T he stone and plaster workshop at the American College of the Building Arts (ACBA) is nothing less than awe-inspiring. A handful of students chisel away at massive blocks of stone seated in front of them. They are intensely focused on the precise movements that transform their rough, blank blocks into pieces of art.”

“The American College of the Building Arts has hammered out a $2 million deal to grow its blacksmithing program”

“Gibbes Museum boasts new outdoor public sculpture by artist Fred Wilsonon goes here”

The sculpture was designed by artist Fred Wilson and built by two ACBA students, Alex Irwin(graduate) and Paul Reilly.

Recent graduate Quinn McKay’s work entitled “Comfort in Complexity” was featured in his exhibition.

“Enduring Beauty: Works from Emerging Practitioners of the Classical Tradition, a juried exhibition of artists and artisans who are solidly Millennial (or even Gen Z): age 35 and younger..”

This July 4, 2023, Post & Courier article describes how,“For nearly 20 years, graduates of the American College of the Building Arts have seen their work shape the landscape, architecture and historical landmarks across America.”

The American College of Building Arts is bringing up the next generation of blacksmiths, carpenters, stone carvers, and more. Their emphasis is on training highly skilled craftsmen able to create new and also restore historical landmarks.

Cameron Hawkins, a graduate of the ACBA stone-working program, took on the job of preparing the new stone that will serve as a frame for the old headstone’s fragile pieces. The project’s completion is expected in the next month or two, and Jennie Lees’ stone will return to the family plot where her memory can bloom again.

This 3:50 video was made by SCETV as part of the 2023 Governor’s Award for the Arts ceremony in June 2023. In this, three ACBA professors share their thoughts and experiences of teaching at ACBA. Please note the ACBA segment is part of a longer video. The ACBA content begins at 39 minutes in case you’d like to skip ahead.

As colleges start classes in new ways - online, in-person, or a hybrid - familiar questions are being asked: Is college worth it? Are there jobs on the other end? A college in Charleston is connecting those dots and teaching traditional skills to carry students through life. Jeffrey Brown shows us the amazing things being done there.

ACBA students and faculty help the team from This Old House bring new life to an Ansonborough single house. Kevin takes a tour of the ACBA campus.

The South Carolina Arts Commission has announced it will bestow five recipients in 2023 with the state’s highest award for exceptional achievement in practicing or supporting the arts: the South Carolina Governor’s Awards for the Arts. ACBA will be recognized in the Arts in Education category.

In one of the country’s most historic cities, a new college is working to preserve centuries-old crafts—and help rebuild America.

As a kid in Germany, Professor Markus Damwerth learned - and came to appreciate - the time-honored ways of doing things, techniques often overlooked today in favor of cheaper, easier methods and mass production. He continues to grow this base of knowledge through an inspired curiosity and desire to learn.

José Jiménez began his journey into the world of the building arts by falling in love with places where buildings don’t exist.

Professor Christina Butler; From the time she was three, she knew she wanted to build things, and do it the right way.

It takes years to learn stone carving. Likewise, you won’t learn the delights of English literature in a week. It takes time. All of this can be accomplished in one extraordinary place: the American College of the Building Arts — a jewel of the South with its antebellum mansions, making it a place of living history.

Iris Howe is filled with emotion as she etches her grandfather’s name in stone. There’s something about carving her grandfather’s name into his tombstone that reminds Howe of his presence.

Mallet, trowel, hammer, chisel. At Charleston’s American College of the Building Arts, the country’s only four-year school dedicated to traditional trades, these are the tools students wield—not only to preserve the past, but also to bring craft back to everyday architecture

As a young man in France, Timber Framing Professor Bruno Sutter joined a guild called Les Compagnons du Devoir, a training program that traces its roots back to the Middle Ages.