The Life Cycle of a Design-Build Project: What It Actually Takes to Build a Linear Park

By Courtney Olson, Executive Director, Friends of the Lowline, edited for length using AI

I joined the Friends of the Lowline as their first Executive Director almost a year ago in July 2025. My background is in nonprofit leadership, urban agriculture and hospitality so jumping headfirst into meetings on design and construction of the Lowline that had already been in motion for months, was like being dropped in a foreign country not knowing the language. The weekly OAC calls where the designers, contractors and city officials were talking about things at a pace that had no time for newcomers made me dread Thursdays at 10:30.

I am going to be honest with you, there is a lot I’m still learning with the scope of a project this size that is still at this point, being designed and constructed at the same time.  But I have learned enough to explain it to a neighbor, which is exactly what I want to do here.  And don’t worry, those Thursday morning calls are much more interesting now that I know the dialect.

Here is what it takes to build 1.7 miles of linear park in the middle of Charleston.

Before a single drawing is made, someone has to say yes, and put real money behind it. For the Lowline, that moment came in January 2025, when Mayor Cogswell and City Council voted to commit $15.8 million from the Cooper River Tax Increment Financing district, or TIF, to fund the project.  

A TIF is a funding mechanism that captures a portion of future tax revenue growth in a defined area and reinvests it in infrastructure and public improvements. It is how cities fund big projects without raising taxes across the board. The Cooper River TIF covers a substantial portion of the peninsula, and that commitment from the Mayor and City Council was the signal that the Lowline was happening and that the city was all in. The Friends of the Lowline have been working towards this park becoming a reality since 2012 with no clear path forward in funding, so this moment was a long time coming for our volunteer led Board of Directors.

Why design-build?

Once funding is secured, the next big decision is how to deliver the project. The traditional model called design-bid-build  is sequential: hire an architect, produce complete drawings, put them out to bid, and build what's on the page. It can take years. Sometimes it never happens at all.

The Lowline is using a design-build model, where the design team and construction team are contractually bound together from the start. They work in parallel. Design evolves alongside construction planning, which means faster groundbreaking and real-time adjustments as the site reveals what it actually requires.

For a project with a 2027 opening target running through eight neighborhoods, speed and flexibility matter. The tradeoff is complexity. Because design and construction happen simultaneously, you're making decisions before everything is finalized. That requires deep trust between the City, DesignWorks, and Edifice and a community willing to engage in the process as it unfolds.

Who is on the team?

After the funding commitment, the City of Charleston put the design-build contract out for competitive bid. This is not a small undertaking. Teams have to demonstrate their qualifications, their approach, their understanding of the community, and their ability to deliver on budget and on time.

The team that won that bid is the partnership you will see on signs along the corridor today, two firms native to Charleston: Edifice Construction and DesignWorks. Edifice is the general contractor, responsible for the physical construction of the park. DesignWorks is the design firm, responsible for the vision, the drawings, and the specifications that guide what gets built. Together, they are our design-build team.

You may also hear references to the term OAC, which stands for Owner, Architect, Contractor. These are the regular project meetings where all three parties, along with sub contractors sit at the same table, work through decisions, and keep the project moving. As the Friends of the Lowline, we are at that table. The City of Charleston is the technical owner of the corridor, but we are there representing the community, our donors/supporters and our long term mission of the Lowline being a great public space for all. 

So what has been happening since they won the bid?

Between the funding vote in January 2025 and our groundbreaking in December 2025, an enormous amount of invisible work happened. The design team produced schematic drawings that went through rounds of review from the Technical Review Committee, SCDOT, surrounding neighborhoods, and multiple city departments. A linear park through the center of a city means hundreds of moving parts, all tracked simultaneously.

At the same time, the construction team was running cost estimates and what the industry calls VE or Value Engineering (I had to Google it). In practice it means: is there a way to get the same result for less money, without compromising the vision? Those conversations are ongoing as costs rise and the team works to protect the scope.

What is an Early Site Package?

We broke ground in December 2025. While it looked ceremonial, it put the Early Site Package into play, the first phases of physical construction. In a design-build process, work can begin in phases before every section is fully designed. The ESP covered what could move first: demolition, clearing, fencing, and the reconstruction of three parking lots adjacent to the corridor.

Those lots were completed between January and April 2026. Not glamorous, but they're part of the revenue model that will help sustain the Lowline long-term. And they're proof the project is real and moving.

If I knew then, what I know now…

A design-build project is not a straight line. It's more like a braid with design, construction, community engagement, permitting, and fundraising all running at once, weaving around each other, sometimes pulling tight and sometimes giving slack.

The people doing this work at Edifice, DesignWorks, the City, and here at Friends of the Lowline are holding an enormous amount of complexity every single day. And the neighbors along the corridor have been part of it too, asking hard questions, showing up, and trusting that this park is being built for them.

The Lowline is on track to open in 2027. If you've driven past a construction fence on the peninsula and wondered what's happening behind it, now you know a little more. And if you want to know even more than that, I'll bring the plans and timeline. Coffee's on me.

Want a deeper look at what's being built and where?

Reach out directly at courtney.olson@friendsofthelowline.org. I'd love to meet you!

Reimagining Public Spaces, Together.