FREE ESSAY ON CLARK AND MENEFEE, ARCHITECTS

CLARK AND MENEFEE, ARCHITECTS

Maggie Cookman September 27, 2000
The Reid House was designed by W.G. Clark and Charles Menefee and built in John's Island,
SC in 1986. Menefee and Clark designed primarily in the American South. Clark and Menefee
are known for their "tripartite vertical organization." The base level normally consists
of secondary bedroom(s)/studio spaces and services. The First floor is a "piano nobile of
principal rooms with a double-height living space." The attic level usually consists of
the master bedroom and bath. The Reid House is set up in this fashion. The house is
located in a modest setting, surrounded by house trailers and cheaply built houses. The
image of the house was "derived from vernacular farm buildings as well as from more
formal Palladian structures." One author described the setting as "John's Island, a
peaceful landscape where truck farmers tend tomato fields carved out of scrub-pine and
dwarf-cedar forests, and where the front yards of shacks are littered with junked cars,
rusting agricultural machinery, and other decaying impedimenta of the Industrial
Revolution." The house is a three-story tower with two components. The first is a 20 ft.
sq. section made of concrete block, housing the living and bedrooms, referred to as the
"served space(s)." The second part, referred to as the "serving space(s)," is a
wood-frame shed that holds the kitchen and the bathrooms. These two components are
"joined at the fireplace and chimney, around which the stair winds." 
The materials used for the house are inexpensive, in keeping with the surrounding
structures. One section is made of concrete blocks, exposed on the inside and covered
with waterproofing paint on the outside. The other part of the house is "sheathed in
plywood and battens and its roof is covered in asphalt shingle." The floors are painted
pine, the interior partitions, painted plywood. The total cost of the house was $102,000,
only $2,000 over the budget that the Reids had set. They wanted the house built because
they wanted to move their two small children out of a trailer home, and they wanted to
have a larger space in which they could manage their 120-acre horse farm. The total area
of the house is only 1600 sq. ft. One author noted that the house "[reconciles] lofty
aspirations and modest means."
W.G. Clark is not a native to Charleston. He worked for six years for Robert Venturi
before going to work with Charles Menefee on the Middleton Inn for Charles Duell. This
project was Clark's first major work, and was more in tune with the work of Peter
Eisenman. Charles Duell, a Middleton descendent, dreamed up the idea of the Middleton
Inn, 15 miles outside of Charleston. He envisioned a guesthouse and conference center,
and planned on seasonal guests who came for flower festivals and other annual events. The
Inn was remote from city tourist attractions, and Clark "capitalized on this and made it
a rural retreat in the woods." The Inn was filled with Charleston details, which helped
to bridge the gap between the city and the rural hideaway in the woods. These details
included terra-cotta chimney pots, wooden shutters, stick-style furniture, special stucco
called "slave coat," and Charleston Green paint, which accentuated the building in the
midst of the trees and growth in the surrounding woods.
Clark and Menefee exemplified an uncommon American virtue, restraint. Their structures
had a simple and clear formal order, and were compact in plan. Their belief was that
generosity was achieved in section. In describing their architecture, one critic notes
that Clark and Menefee's buildings "distil a didactic language through which both formal
meaning and construction can be revealed and understood." It was also said that their
houses were "idealized pavilions sitting solidly on the site in the classical manner."
Their designs were small and succinct, and interior finishes were sometimes rough, but
their craft was excellent. Clark and Menefee succeeded in practical designs, while
economizing on budgets and space.