Sure, it’s easy for colleges to brag about themselves. Here’s what others are saying about ACBA.

  • Women of ACBA talk shop on craftsmanship, community, more

    The Charleston City Paper interviews women of ACBA and how they are looking to shape America’s historical landscape. The article appeared in the Charleston City Paper on December 8, 2023.

  • How American College of the Building Arts graduates shape America's historical landscape

    How American College of the Building Arts graduates shape America's historical landscape

    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.”

  • American College of the Building Arts teaches blacksmithing, timber framing, carpentry, plaster, wood and classical architecture.

    The Art of Restoration

    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.

  • Three Professors Share Their Experiences at ACBA

    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.

  • Garden & Gun Magazine

    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

  • PBS NewsHour

    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.

  • This Old House Kevin at American College of the Building Arts

    This Old House

    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.

  • S.C. Governor's Award for the Arts

    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.

  • Worth Magazine

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

  • The Paths We Forge

    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.

  • College student working wood

    Smithsonian Magazine

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

  • College preservation professor builds using vintage tools

    Christina Butler is a preservation expert

    Professor Christina Butler is a highly accomplished preservation professional. From the time she was three, she knew she wanted to build things, and do it the right way.

  • Llewellyn King talks about American College of the Building Arts

    Stone Carving to Dickens: Delights of a Charleston College

    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.

  • Stone carving student repairs gravestone

    Gravestone carvers keep ancient tradition alive

    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.

  • headstone repair Jennie Lees Jamison Cameron Hawkins stone carving grave stones memorial

    Set in Stone

    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.

  • Bruno Sutter expert at timber framing and wood

    Hidden Gems: Bruno Sutter

    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.