OLD SCHOOL

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Credit: Edie Ellison

The development team for Patrick Square took their cue from historic regional styles and sensibilities, developing 10 basic home plans for its builders while creating a land plan that further leveraged each home’s inherently passive solar design and delivered a diverse streetscape.

Homes at Patrick Square are designed and designated for specific lots based on the parcel’s orientation to the sun and street, most with deep porches that create an “intermediate” living and social space. The design of rear courtyards and their relation to alley-accessed garages also are flexible to make sure private backyards are comfortable through most of the day.

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Credit: Rob Harris

“Sun angles are integrated into our design standards to enable passive solar and also social interaction,” says town architect Lew Oliver. “We’re trying to get away from ‘hermetically sealed’ indoor environments that disconnect us from the world.”

In addition, prospective buyers must adhere to the land plan. “They can’t just ‘pick a lot, pick a plan’ anymore,” says Pat Kurek, president of JMC Homes of South Carolina, who builds the semi-custom Village Homes at Patrick Square. “We’ve looked at the whole parcel and designed and placed plans on lots per climate conditions, topography, orientation, and their relation to each other,” to arrive at a diverse—and arguably more valuable and sustainable—streetscape and neighborhood feel, he says.

Southern Comfort

Patrick Square in Clemson, S.C., is the first project in the state to earn EarthCraft Communities certification, and all homes built there must meet EarthCraft House program standards (www.earthcrafthouse.com). Borrowing from traditional designs of the Old South, homes at Patrick Square leverage passive solar design features that naturally reduce energy demand for cooling and ventilation. More than a third of the entire parcel has been set aside for permanent conservation and recreation.

For his part, Kurek and other Patrick Square builders must also adhere to the standards set by EarthCraft House, a longstanding regional green building program that also has certified the entire community—the first in South Carolina to achieve that distinction. “The standards are performance-based, so there’s plenty of design variations and technologies that fit,” he says. “There isn’t just one way to do it.”

Project: Patrick Square
Location: Clemson, S.C.
Developer: Patrick Square LLC, Clemson
Builders: JMC Homes of South Carolina, St. Petersburg, Fla. (Village Homes); and Cook Brothers, West Beaufort, S.C. (custom homes)
Architect: Lew Oliver Inc., Whole Town Solutions, Atlanta
Specs: Eight homes in the Village Homes collection, ranging in size from 2,290 to 3,591 square feet
Price: Negotiated per contract
Website: www.patricksquare.com/residences.html