This 2009 article announced that Clemson University’s Restoration Institute had just landed $98 million in new funding to develop next-generation wind turbines.
If any REVITALIZATION readers are familiar with the current activities of the Restoration Institute, please update us in the Comments section (available to subscribers only) at the bottom of the page.
Note from Storm: I have a personal interest in Clemson University’s Restoration Institute. I was consulting for Clemson around a decade ago, and gave them the idea to create such an institute. It’s original purpose was to research and teach a broad variety of disciplines related to natural resource restoration, agricultural renewal, brownfields cleanup/redevelopment, historic preservation, and community revitalization. I also helped them land millions of dollars from the state of South Carolina to launch the institute.
But the university got wrapped around the legal and political axle for several years with a big real estate deal on a former Navy Base in North Charleston (which I also suggested). They wanted to build a campus for the Restoration Institute adjacent to the Noisette Project, one of the most enlightened urban revitalization efforts the U.S. has ever seen. During this time, the research and curriculum development for the Restoration Institute was put on hold, and the original team moved on to other schools. By the time the real estate deal was consummated, the institute had lost its leadership and its connection to the original mission.
The institute’s website has been “under development” for years now, so I’d be very curious to know what (if anything) is actually going on down there. Clemson showed great vision when they launched this intitiative, and the mission is more relevant today than ever. Hopefully, their Restoration Institute can be revitalized.