Tree Servicein Wild Dunes, SC

Swaths of uninterrupted white-sand beach, the smell of salty spray, warm sun on your skin, and the rustle of palm fronds gently blowing in the wind—these are the sights, sounds, and scents of Isle of Palms. The South Carolina barrier island packs a lot of relaxation and big fun into a vacation destination that's just seven miles long and one mile wide. The island's proximity to Charleston (just 18 miles by car), make it a preferred summer hideout for locals. An abundance of vacation rentals and the iconic Wild Dunes resort have been drawing visitors from across the country since the early 1970s.

With the deep blue Atlantic on one side and marshy creeks of the Intracoastal Waterway on the other, Isle of Palms offers the best of the Lowcountry and the beach in one stunning setting that's begging to be added to your vacation calendar.

Beach Activities

Six of Isle of Palms' seven total miles are occupied by public beaches, which means you'll have your pick of the litter when looking for a sandy spot where you can post up for the day—or the week. Once you've staked your claim, all the normal beach activities are yours for the choosing, from splashing around in the surprisingly calm seas to building the ultimate sandcastle or playing a game of beach volleyball.

For families, the Isle of Palms County Park, located in the middle of the island's coastline, is ideal. The public beach has lifeguards, outdoor showers, chair and umbrella rentals, restrooms, and even a playground for little ones retreat to once they tire of the sun and surf.

On The Water

Make the most of a visit to Isle of Palms by scheduling a charter to take you offshore. Get your sea legs at the Isle of Palms Marina, where you can easily rent a boat and spend a day exploring the island's bays and waterways. Fishing charters are plentiful and offer both reef fishing and Gulf Stream fishing.

Consider a twilight fishing charter for the family, when sea life such as sharks are more active. Create indelible memories as your party witnesses the sunset over the Atlantic while casting a line for those fish that inhabit the bottom of the depths. Try booking through Barrier Island Fishing Charters for just the right adventure.

Wildlife Viewing

For adventure enthusiasts or wildlife lovers, Barrier Island Eco Tours hosts a range of naturalist-guided tours that take visitors through winding salt marshes, tidal creeks, and the Intracoastal Waterway on the way to uninhabited Capers Island. Animals you might see along the way include loggerhead turtles, bottlenose dolphins, and every shape and size of coastal birds.

Nets and traps are employed as your excursion unfolds for close-up viewing of some of the marine life that thrives just below the surface. When you arrive on the island, exploring the astonishing natural landscape is top priority. Take a slow walk along “Boneyard Beach,”and wander on the interior trails that provide excellent viewing of untouched ponds, vibrant with the wildlife that call this sanctuary home.

A Culinary Sweet Spot

Breakfast is noteworthy at Sea Biscuit Café. The tiny beachside shack has been dishing out delicious morning meals since 1968. While they offer all the classics, the daily specials are where the magic happens. Past offerings have included chocolate banana challah French toast, lemon lavender pancakes, and tomato pie.

When you need a mid-day refuel for the whole family, Coconut Joe's is the obvious choice. Located on Isle of Palms' main drag, you won't have to venture far to get fresh seafood and impeccable vibes. The open-air covered deck is the ideal spot for munching on the restaurant's namesake shrimp, while rocking sandy toes and sun-bleached hair. When happy hour hits, venture to the rooftop bar for a frozen cocktail or painkiller. Nothing will put you on island time faster.

By the time you're finally ready to come in from the sun and go out to dinner, Isle of Palms will be waiting with plenty of options. The Boathouse and Acme Lowcountry Kitchen are island staples that have stood the test of time thanks to excellent quality food and good old-fashioned Southern hospitality. For a special night out, try Coda del Pesce, a fine dining restaurant that specializes in Italian with lots of influence (and fresh catch) from the nearby seas.

All trips to Isle of Palms must include at least one visit to The Windjammer at Front Beach. The legendary local music venue is known for its incredible live shows, stellar views of the water, cold drinks, and unbeatable fried pickles.

Your Dream Accommodations

The obvious choice for places to stay in Isle of Palms is Wild Dunes Resort, a 1,600-acre family-friendly resort that offers everything from rooms and suites at two inns, to private beach condos and home rentals. In addition to a more-than-comfortable stay, the resort also features several resort-style pools, a spa, and two championship golf courses.

If you're hoping for a cozier stay, the newly renovated Palms Oceanfront Hotel consists of 68 modern rooms with gorgeous views of the sparkling Atlantic. There are also plenty of rentals through Airbnb and VRBO for everything from multifamily waterfront homes to one-bedroom condos.

Whether you book for a long weekend or stay for an entire week, the memories and magic of Isle of Palms will stay with you for months and years to come—maybe even until you have a chance to make another trip back!

The Lowcountry Tennis Association (LCTA) has been named South Carolina’s Community Tennis Association (CTA) of the Year. The CTA of the Year award is given each year by the U.S. Tennis Association in South Carolina (USTA SC).

USTA SC will present the award to LCTA at its 2023 Annual Meeting Nov. 17-19, at the Wild Dunes Tennis Center on the Isle of Palms.

“We are proud of the work our CTAs do to grow the game of tennis across the state,” said Nan Smith, President of the USTA SC board. “We are particularly proud of the work our Lowcountry Tennis Association has done this year as one of the largest CTAs in a fast-growing community.”

LCTA runs the fourth largest local adult tennis league program in the country, behind only Atlanta, Denver and Dallas. Also, LCTA is the second largest adult league in the USTA Southern Section. USTA SC is one of nine states included in the USTA’s Southern Section.

LCTA was chosen for several additional reasons, including the following:

• 4,600 active adult players in the Charleston area.

• 16,308 player registrations in 2023, thus far.

• LCTA hosts the annual Peiffer Cup which determines the Lowcountry tennis champions in all flights. It is named after Bob Peiffer, who pioneered the original LCTA. More than 500 players participated in 2022 and more than 50 teams will participate in 2023.

• The LCTA board established a facility enhancement committee which will allocate more than $30,000 in grant funding, in 2024, to area tennis facilities and youth organizations.

• LCTA held a robust grass roots advocacy campaign in 2023, focused on local municipalities and facilities. The ongoing goal is to increase tennis court capacity and to improve tennis court conditions.

• LCTA hosts an annual social event at the Credit One Charleston Open, inviting tennis leaders and local elected officials to showcase the value of tennis in the community.

• LCTA established the annual Dee Mack Scholarship Award in honor of its long-time adult league coordinator.

“The Lowcountry Tennis Association is excited to accept the USTA South Carolina CTA of the Year Award for 2023,” said Bill Ennis, President of the LCTA Board of Directors. “I want to congratulate our board, outstanding league leaders, coordinators, facility managers and the thousands of Lowcountry tennis captains and players who represent LCTA with dedication and sportsmanship in creating such a high-quality tennis environment.”

CHARLESTON, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lowe, a respected national real estate investor, developer and manager, and partner Dart Interests have completed development of The Sweetgrass Inn at Wild Dunes Resort, a 153-room boutique hotel located on the Isle of Palms, just 30 minutes from historic downtown Charleston. The Sweetgrass Inn features a mix of comfortable and tastefully appointed guest rooms and suites, a premier spa, two dining options, an expansive pool deck and first-class meeting and event spaces, in addition to full access to Wild Dunes Resort’s award-winning golf courses, tennis club and white sand beaches.

“The Sweetgrass Inn adds a distinctive boutique option to the array of offerings at the 1,600 acre Wild Dunes Resort. Throughout the decades of our tenure as an owner and managing partner at Wild Dunes we have been committed to maintaining the quality of the Resort and enhancing this one-of-a-kind property to provide a welcoming environment and relaxing escape for all of our guests,” said Matt Walker, Executive Vice President of Lowe.

Developed by longtime Wild Dunes owner Lowe and partner Dart Interests, The Sweetgrass Inn offers spacious accommodations with spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean, Lowcountry marshes, Charleston city skyline and Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. Guest rooms range from king, double queen and one-bedroom suites. Each guestroom embraces modern, contemporary design elements influenced by a coastal aesthetic, incorporating Charleston’s historic charm. The hotel was designed by the Charleston team of McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture, with interior design by Malcolm Berg of EoA.

The Spa at Sweetgrass is a stunning 10,000-square-foot sanctuary featuring 14 treatment rooms and indoor and outdoor relaxation spaces, including a 3,000-square-foot private outdoor spa garden with plunge pools and cabanas.

Visitors to the Sweetgrass Inn will find two culinary experiences: The Laughing Gull, a casual poolside bar and restaurant, and The Oystercatcher Restaurant & Bar, a full-service restaurant featuring local fresh seafood delivered daily and a lively gathering place inside the hotel lobby.

One of the most captivating features is the hotel’s new, expansive pool deck with a zero-entry pool, hot tub and kid’s splash pad. Poolside programming will be offered for children and families.

The Sweetgrass Inn elevates Wild Dunes Resort as a premier destination for groups and events in Charleston with the addition of 30,000 square feet of event space. The Sweetgrass Inn’s Indigo Room & Rooftop, the Lowcountry’s only rooftop ballroom and terrace, offers a 3,000-square-foot ballroom and 6,000-square-foot terrace with stunning ocean views for formal events and weddings. The 8,000-square-foot Osprey Ballroom & Terrace is perfect for multi-function events of up to 800. Adjacent to the Osprey Ballroom, the 570-square-foot Avocet Boardroom provides a more intimate space for meetings or private events.

Christopher Kelsey, President of Dart Interests, commented, “The Sweetgrass Inn is a spectacular new hotel that significantly exceeds our expectations. Combined with other major improvements to the resort including major upgrades to the retail shops and the Boardwalk Inn, the opening of the Sweetgrass Inn is transformative to Wild Dunes, creating an entirely new and much higher quality guest experience.”

Wild Dunes Resort offers 2.5 miles of coastline, two Tom Fazio designed Championship golf courses, world-ranked tennis courts, the Boardwalk Inn hotel, vacation rental condominiums and luxury vacation homes. It currently features nine restaurants and cafes, indoor and outdoor meeting and function space including the signature Grand Pavilion, fitness center and retail shops at The Shoppes at Sweetgrass.

Wild Dunes Resort is jointly owned by Lowe and Dart Interests. Lowe acquired Wild Dunes Resort in 1990 following Hurricane Hugo, restored the Resort and has continued to expand and improve Wild Dunes over the past 30 years. Most recently, Lowe completed a three-year, $10 million renovation of the Boardwalk Inn, Links golf course and clubhouse, Grand Pavilion and Sweetgrass Pavilion event space. In 2018, Dart Interests joined Lowe as partner in the Resort and the venture initiated continued improvements and expansion of the property.

About Lowe

Lowe, formerly known as Lowe Enterprises, is a leading national real estate investment, development and management firm. Over the past 48 years, it has developed, acquired or managed more than $32 billion of real estate assets nationwide as it pursued its mission to build value in real estate by creating innovative, lasting environments and meaningful experiences that connect people and place. Lowe currently has more than $2 billion in commercial real estate projects in the pipeline or under development. In addition to its Los Angeles headquarters, Lowe maintains regional offices in Southern California, Northern California, Charleston, Denver, Seattle, and Washington, DC. For more information visit www.Lowe-RE.com.

About Dart Interests

Dart Interests is a U.S. real estate development and investment firm solely owned by the Dart Family. Dart Interests has a growing portfolio of more than $1 billion currently invested in real estate projects across seven states. With an emphasis on long term value creation, our structure enables the firm to be flexible as well as purposeful in developing leading-edge properties in both urban and resort settings. Our combination of available capital and industry expertise gives the organization the freedom to take calculated risks and produce meaningful results. Based in Dallas, Dart Interests also has regional offices in Orlando, Charlotte and Houston. For more information, visit: dartinterests.com.

Want a quick getaway practically in your own backyard? While Mount Pleasant and the surrounding beaches serve almost daily in that capacity, something else you might not have tried before, the brand-new Nest Rooftop Bar, is already proving hard to beat.

Opened April 1 atop the Sweetgrass Inn at Wild Dunes Resort on the far east end of Isle of Palms, The Nest, as patrons call it, offers up an array of colorful island drinks and an atmosphere that will make you want to stay forever on the South Carolina coast— even if you already live here.

“There is no hotel in our area that has a space truly like this nestled six floors above the beach,” said Nico Scherman, general manager of Wild Dunes Resort. “The new hotel opened with ample rooftop space…and we imagined a casual rooftop bar that mimics our Lowcountry lifestyle.”

Even if you don’t drink alcoholic beverages, the rooftop view alone is worth the effort, thanks to the surrounding dunes, hotel and pools, harbor golf course, and of course, everyone’s favorite, the Atlantic Ocean and shoreline.

“We focused on developing a space that feels tropical, from the colorful uniforms to the space that is engulfed in tropical plants,” Scherman said. “And The Nest is a mix of bohemian style, complemented by a curated beachside cocktail list.”

For a drink or two, Nest bartenders are ready to serve up lots of intriguing goodies, such as the Cucumber Mule Cocktail, the Passion Fruit Margarita, Tall Skinny Houses Pilsner, and Poke the Bear APA – all from Charleston breweries.

“We only serve local beer of the Southeast,” Scherman said. “You won’t find mainstream light beers here.”

But you will find bartenders who get to showcase their talents, providing a sort of unplanned-for entertainment to go with your drinks.

“My favorite part of the job is the on-the-fly cocktail creation and the creative freedom our leadership gives us,” said Veteran Bartender Mike Sweatte. “And having a bar overlooking the beach is not a bad day at the office.”

Interesting dishes also pair well with the signature drinks and one-of-a-kind view. This is where Chef Austin Blake will step in to offer you his favorite dish of Mason Jar Pickled Shrimp.

“It’s our most popular patron dish,” Blake said. “It’s a classic Lowcountry item, but we put our own creative twist on it— and use local shrimp to represent a staple of the South.”

After a day poolside or on the beach, when you’re not quite ready for dinner but you don’t want to hang it up just yet, a stop at The Nest will do the trick. Don’t forget to check out the custom mural, which serves as a great backdrop along with the full ocean views. You may never leave.

To learn more, visit destinationhotels.com/wild-dunes/dining/the-nest, or call 843-886-6000.

By L. C. Leach III

Wine Down All Summer: Looking Through Rose-colored Glasses The Sweet Spot: Find a Little Bit of Everything at Dulce

When engaged professors pair up with successful alumni who want to give back to the university that served them, magic happens for students. This semester, that magic is happening now for sixteen lucky students in Travis Hicks’ Interior Architecture (IARc) studio class, who are spending their final semester redesigning restaurants and a VIP suite for a beachfront resort near Charleston, SC.

Beyond the Studio

IARc offers students a broad knowledge in design, commercial applications, and architectural processes. Class options can be tailored to a student’s individual professional aspirations. Although many classes include hands-on projects in the Gatewood Studio Arts Building, Hicks gives fourth year undergraduate students an opportunity to apply the knowledge they’ve absorbed to functioning business environments.

“By the time a student gets to the end of their fourth year, they have skills in conceptual thinking, research, tradition and styles,” Hicks explains. “They have experience looking at materials and systems and understanding how buildings go together. And they have an understanding of how people feel in different kinds of spaces, how colors and materials affect people, and how different proportions of spaces affect people differently. So, by the time they’re at the end of this fourth year, students are really skilled in the studio environment.”

As this group of seniors approaches the completion of their degrees, it is time to test their preparation for real world design jobs. Hicks’ studio class generally engages with design projects in the community. But as he considered what the focus of the final projects would be, Hicks realized that this particular class would take him on a different journey.

“Typically, I would have a studio project in mind. I’d already have a site of building or an idea of what the end product would be. This time I thought, let me ask the students,” the professor explained. “It’s their final semester, their final studio. They’ve been through a lot during COVID and I wanted to make it fun for them, and meaningful to their interests and goals in life.”

seeking hospitality through alumni connections

The students had an overwhelming response to their professor’s request for input on the semester-long projects: hospitality design.

“I’m not a hospitality designer by trade, but I know how to teach students to use design skills to accomplish virtually any program type,” admits Hicks. “With hospitality design, we’re talking restaurants, hotels, boutique hotels with bars, etc. Not being that type of designer myself, I had to think about who I knew who was a hospitality designer.”

Enter Anna Will Maginn ’11, ’13, a UNCG alumna who has combined her passions and education to build a career that led her to an associate marketing director position at one of the most popular beach resorts in the Carolinas, Wild Dunes Resort.

Before moving to Charleston, SC, Maginn received a BA in Interior Architecture in 2011 and a Masters in Interior Architecture in 2013, both at UNCG. In the marketing department at Wild Dunes, Maginn uses her design know-how to enhance sales and customer experiences.

The beach resort, managed by Hyatt, includes accommodation types from hotel suites to private homes; expansive meeting space; restaurants and retail shops; and pools, tennis and golf amenities. Maginn has participated in a recent renovation and expansion of the resort, and currently holds the interim marketing director position at Wild Dunes.

“I knew when Travis approached me that we had some unique offerings that the class could experience that they probably can’t get elsewhere.” Maginn explained, “We’re just coming off of a renovation. It’s a good place to be because we’re in a design evaluation mode.”

“The students are coming in at a point where we are reflecting on what we need for this space that will better communicate the concept. They get to put their stamp on it and potentially produce something that will actually come to be. I don’t think you get that very often and it’s a very cool thing that the students can take away.”

From Proposal to Syllabus

Remembering the studio projects she worked on during her time at UNCG, Maginn proposed a partnership with Hicks’ studio class to her management team at Wild Dunes. The resort needed new ideas for the redesign of a tapas restaurant in the hotel lobby, a sports pub at the golf course, and a VIP suite; the class needed functioning hospitality design projects to tackle. It was a win-win opportunity.

Hicks is excited to work with Maginn again and has great expectations for what his current students can bring to Wild Dunes resort executives.

“I think the students are getting a great opportunity to work in a space where they might not have access otherwise. But the resort management is also getting a huge amount of thinking and design conceptualizing from the students. And it is possible to take any one of the students’ designs and implement them with the right team of people at Wild Dunes.”

Maginn and Hicks developed a syllabus for the class that includes multiple remote meetings between the class and the resort management team. Project briefings began in January; Maginn and other resort executives will give periodic input on student designs via Zoom; Wild Dunes generously offered the class a 3-day visit to the property to study the sites and get input from management; and student presentations to resort management were set for later in the semester.

Creating Opportunity for Undergrads

The Wild Dunes projects will consume this class’ final undergraduate term with a real-world designer/client relationship. All students will finish the projects with portfolio building designs, but some may produce designs that will be utilized on the property.

Maginn is proud to help facilitate this connection between the future designers in UNCG’s Interior Architecture department and the resort she works for. Although the designs may take a while for the resort to implement, she plans to stay in touch with the students.

“I hope they won’t be off and running into the world and forget about us,” Maginn says. “Because if it takes shape, I definitely want to invite them to be part of the process. If that happened to me when I was in school, I would be honored beyond words to know that I had a real stamp on a very real setting in a commercial space of this magnitude.

Travis Hicks credits the IARc department’s ongoing connections with alumni like Anna Maginn for providing avenues that lead to opportunities for current students.

“I can imagine that Anna agreeing to participate in this project might be a way for her to give back to our students in the same way that I watched other professionals help her when she was finishing her IARc degree,” Hicks muses. “Our alumni are pretty giving at UNCG. Anna is continuing in that long line of alumni as she gives back to UNCG of her time and her connections”.

Postscript note: Stay tuned as University Communications follows the IARc studio class’ trip to Isle of Palms to present their proposed designs to Wild Dunes Resort executives. It’s a perfect example of the ways our faculty and alumni work together to help students make a direct impact on our community and beyond.

Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications.

wANT TO TURN YOUR PASSION FOR DESIGN INTO A CAREER?