Personal Injury Attorney in Chester, SC

When Joe Filippelli was completing architecture school at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College in 2013, his classmate Peyton Coles made him a promise.

“Peyton said, ‘Joe, if you ever start your own office, you can build my house,’” Mr. Filippelli said. “People joke about stuff like that, but you never think it’s going to be real.”

The friends had studied buildings together, but by the time they graduated, Mr. Coles had realized he didn’t actually want to work as an architect. After growing up on a farm in Virginia, he decided to pursue a career in agricultural technology.

For years, Mr. Filippelli didn’t think much about that conversation, as college friends routinely make such grand declarations that are eventually forgotten. But within a few months of establishing his own architecture firm, North House Architects, in Grand Haven, Mich., in early 2020, Mr. Coles called — he was ready for that house.

By then, Mr. Coles had married Peanut Belk, and the couple had moved to Wild Hope Farm, an organic produce and flower operation that Ms. Belk runs in Chester, S.C. They were in the process of purchasing a 28-acre portion of the 400-acre property owned by Ms. Belk’s parents for $100,000 so they could build a house of their own on the farm.

The project revived Mr. Coles’s interest in architecture and his admiration for his friend.

“I worked next to Joe for three years at school and knew what he was good at, and that we would work well together,” said Mr. Coles, now 38. “Maybe this was a consolation prize for not moving back to Virginia or something, but Peanut pretty quickly let me have fun with it, and to lean into the architectural side of it.”

With plans for a family — the couple now have three children, ages 1 to 4 — Ms. Belk, 33, did have ideas about how the home should function.

“We wanted to spend as much time outside as possible,” she said. “We wanted great lighting and a good kitchen. We wanted an open, comfortable space where we could be cooking while hanging out with the kids.”

It didn’t take long for Mr. Filippelli and Mr. Coles to arrive at a shared vision for the home. Drawing inspiration from Amish-built pole barns and old tobacco drying sheds, they envisioned a 1,528-square-foot rectangle of a building.

“It’s a super simple form,” Mr. Coles said. “We landed on a long, low shape with a peaked roof.”

“Without a doubt, it’s a very agrarian form,” Mr. Filippelli said.

But with that traditional shape as a starting point, the friends were also intent on designing a low-cost, high-performance building that reflected a contemporary take on the American farmhouse.

“One of the things Peyton said early on, which became a driver, was that he wanted to build it with materials you could find at a local lumber yard,” Mr. Filippelli said. “We didn’t want to have high-end fabricators coming in,” he noted, to install expensive, exotic materials.

They were pleased to discover that much of the construction-grade lumber they planned to use was actually grown and milled in the area. “It’s hyperlocal,” Ms. Belk said, much like the produce Wild Hope Farm sells to its customers.

That, in turn, led to a decision to expose the home’s structural elements instead of hiding them behind drywall. Leaving the walls as wood framing and sheathing would have the added advantage of creating an extremely hard-wearing interior.

“We decided that we were going to expose the innards of this thing — the guts of the house — and move all the insulation to the outside of the walls, where it wraps the whole house like a sweater,” Mr. Filippelli said.

The home is built largely with Southern yellow pine, both in lengths of dimensional lumber and plywood. Even where they needed a laminated veneer lumber, or LVL, beam above sliding glass doors opening to a covered porch, they found one from Roseburg, an engineered wood manufacturer just a few miles away.

The closets and cabinets were made from more plywood, and the simple shelves made from pine boards stretch across open walls to help maximize storage.

To clad the exterior, they used cedar that was grown, collected and milled right on the farm into long, slender slats.

“We were milling cedar for farm use but also for this house project,” Ms. Belk said.

Built by Spoke & Hammer Construction Company, the house took a little more than a year to complete, at a cost of about $550,000, and it was ready for the family in February 2023.

Now, Mr. Coles and Ms. Belk relish the sweeping views the house provides, as well as the direct connection it has to the fields.

“We’ve got skylights, we’ve got views in every direction,” Mr. Coles said.

Preparing meals in the kitchen, Ms. Belk said, “It’s fun to watch the kids just playing outside.”

There’s just one unintended downside to all that glass, they joked. “We see storms coming, head on,” Mr. Coles said. “That adds anxiety when you’re farming.”

Event is to help students learn more about science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math

CHESTER, S.C. (WBTV) - Students in Chester County were able to get creative during STEAM Education Month by creating their own sustainable cities.

Giti Tires in Chester County has sponsored the Chester County School District’s STEAM Competition every year since it started in 2017. The goal of the event is to help students learn more about science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math.

Lewisville High School senior Samuel Crouch has been a part of his school’s STEAM program since his freshman year.

He says, “It’s just it’s a lot of different types of design, designing and engineering, especially through the 3D printing aspect.”

This year, the school district wanted students to create sustainable communities. District leaders say they wanted to focus on something that will continue to impact students in the future. After he graduates, Crouch wants to study law. He says this experience has taught him more about project management.

Crouch says, “We just felt once we got enough information. We started researching, looking at different real cities and different real places, and just kind of built based off of the research what we wanted to do.”

Students in Chester County made their final presentations on Wednesday and will get to participate in a larger banquet showcasing all the district’s projects on Thursday at the Gateway Conference Center.

This competition is sponsored by Giti Tire, which says they wanted to move into this community to make these connections and inspire future employees.

David Shelton, with Giti Tire, says, “I’ve seen some of these young people from elementary on into middle school and on into high school and watch them develop both from an intellectual standpoint learning the fundamentals understanding the projects understanding what failure and success all lead into more growth and preparation for life.”

Over the last few school years Chester County School District’s math and science scores have gone up. District leaders say this competition has helped inspire kids. Samuel says he would continue to encourage students to get involved.

Crouch says, “To do it, it’s worth it. It’s a lot of hard work for sure, but it’s worth every second of it and make sure you find a good team because it just makes it feel like you’re not working.”

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Chester family forced to move after water runoff causes home damage

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Severe weather possible during Tuesday afternoon storms

CHESTER, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Residents of a Chester neighborhood have been battling flooding issues for decades. That community is Jeter Heights near the county fairgrounds.

In January, Tierra Wilson moved her family out of their home after years of unexplained nosebleeds and illness. You can see mold and water damage all throughout her home.

“It’s just nasty, you couldn’t keep socks, nothing,” Wilson said. “The evaporation rises into the house so you almost have, you can almost feel the dampness in the carpet.”

The ground was soft in her backyard when Queen City News visited days after when there was no rain in the area.

“I’ve never seen soil that never gets dry,” Wilson said. “Even today it’s still not dry.”

And she’s not alone. Wilson’s neighbor, Yvonne Hughes has been leading the fight to bring attention to this flooding issue.

“It’s gotten worse over the years, and you almost have to be like Noah, get in a boat to get out after the rain,” Hughes said.

The neighbors tell us after an hour of steady rain in Jeter Heights, their yards turn into raging rivers.

“We keep trying to tell people we got this problem,” Hughes said. “We have outlets, but they get clogged form the debris that’s mixed in with the water.”

Chester Mayor Carlos Williams met with the neighbors on April 16.

“I’ve been hearing it for years,” Williams said. “It’s not just this area, it’s around Chester. It’s the culverts.”

He said the city received a $250,000 grant to do a stormwater study for the city – and this is one of the first areas they will check.

“All these people that have been in government, been on council, been your mayors just being leaders in this community overlooked this community,” Williams said.

Williams said South Carolina DOT maintains the drains and will be key to help. He said last week the city had plans to host vendors to look at the situation.

“We can show South Carolina DOT this is what the City of Chester is doing for its residents; we need you to step up and do the same,” Williams said.

Neighbors like Wilson still wait for relief.

“Ever since I moved my whole body feels better not being in this house,” Wilson said. “I really would love to be able to come back home, but I don’t see that really happening.”

We reached out to South Carolina DOT for comment. An official on the phone said they have received our request and are looking to gather more information for us.

City officials approved an arts and entertainment district in downtown Chester, introducing the area's first social district in the process.

CHESTER, S.C. — The city of Chester is getting an arts & entertainment district.

City officials approved plans to create the district in downtown Chester. Its creation will also allow for a social district in Chester.

RELATED: 'Expect the unexpected' | Historic Carolina Theatre reopens in Uptown Charlotte

The city said this new social district will be the first social district on the South Carolina side of the Charlotte region.

"For the past two or three years, the city of Chester has been a magnet to local investors from Charlotte, Greenville, and Georgia, and it’s here now," shared Mayor Carlos Williams.

For years, there's been pushback on the growth from residents wanting to keep the historic feel of the area. Leaders say they're taking that request into consideration.

"We want to keep the small town charm. We don’t want to be like another city, we want to be like Chester. You can see from the architecture – it’s a very special place and we want to enhance that," explained City Administrator Malik Whitaker.

The mayor shares thatright now they're looking to bring in "restaurants, bars, more retail spots, and things for the family.”

Final details for the location of the district have not been announced, though the city provided a map of potential options.

Credit: City of Chester, SC

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CHESTER COUNTY, S.C. —

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One person is dead after a school bus carrying 35 students overturned on Interstate 77 in Chester County, South Carolina, according to South Carolina Highway Patrol.

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According to troopers, at 1:45 p.m., a 2021 Blue Bird school bus was traveling south on I-77 near mile marker 55 in Blackstock when a tire blew out. The bus then struck a guard rail and overturned.

Due to the crash, both directions of I-77 were shut down. Officials with the Richburg Fire-Rescue later said northbound lanes reopened, but southbound lanes remain closed.

Lexington District 2 said that students were traveling home from a field trip in Charlotte when a tire blew out, causing the driver to lose control and the bus to overturn.

According to the school's website, an eighth-grade field trip was scheduled for Thursday.

The school district confirmed that the bus was carrying 35 students from Pine Ridge Middle School and three adults at the time of the crash. For the full statement from Lexington District 2, scroll down.

An official with Lancaster County confirmed five people were transported to area hospitals in critical condition. At this time, we do not know how many of those who were injured were students.

Shortly after 6 p.m., Highway Patrol said one person is dead following the crash. Again, we do not know if the deceased is a student at this time.

South Carolina Highway Patrol is investigating the collision.

Stay tuned with WYFF News 4 as we learn more.

"Early this afternoon, three buses carrying students from Pine Ridge Middle School were traveling home south on Interstate 77, following a field trip just outside Charlotte. A tire blew on one of the buses, causing an accident. The bus was carrying three adults and roughly 35 students.

"The two other buses traveling back on Interstate 77 were not involved.

"EMS is on the scene, along with other emergency responders, law enforcement agencies, and district/school personnel. EMS is assessing everyone on the scene, and some students are being transported for further evaluation."

Previous coverage below:

One person is dead after a school bus carrying 35 students overturned on Interstate 77 in Chester County, South Carolina, according to South Carolina Highway Patrol.

Just after 3 p.m. Thursday, the Chester County Sheriff's Office asked people to avoid the area of I-77 southbound at mile marker 55 in Blackstock due to an overturned school bus.

After 3 p.m., officials with Richburg Fire-Rescue said that both directions of I-77 were expected to be blocked for an extended period of time.

As of 4:30 p.m., fire officials said the northbound lanes have reopened, but traffic is moving slowly. All southbound lanes remain closed.

Lexington District 2 said that students were traveling home from a field trip in Charlotte when a tire blew out, causing the driver to lose control and the bus to overturn.

An official with Lancaster County confirmed five people were transported to area hospitals in critical condition. At this time, we do not know how many of those who were injured were students.

Shortly after 6 p.m., Highway Patrol said one person is dead following the crash. Again, we do not know if the deceased is a student at this time.

South Carolina Highway Patrol is investigating the collision.

Stay tuned with WYFF News 4 as we learn more.