State Office Buildings Nos. 5, 6, and 7

These three buildings, which house most of the state's Charleston workforce, have little to distinguish them. The group consists of two towers, one eleven stories tall (number 5) and one eight stories tall (number 7), set at right angles to each other and joined by a two-story portico connector (number 6). The connector has glazed walls between unadorned piers, whereas the office towers are steel framed and clad in precast concrete and limestone. Inside, a modular wall partition system allows spaces to be configured to suit any need. When the buildings were opened, a reporter for the Charleston Daily Mail noted, perhaps a bit too informally, that one of the conference rooms “could handle 2,000 people with no sweat. The partitions snap out in a second and are very light.” On the other hand, he noted that some of the offices, “from desk size to football field, [were] very cold and in some places depressing.” Utilitarian and functional, but little else, the buildings were dubbed “Holiday Inn Modern” even before they were completed. They remain unloved and unnamed and are known simply by their numbers.