For 40 years, Mayor Joe Riley helped guide Charleston through transformation-reviving its historic core, expanding public spaces, supporting the arts and rebuilding after disaster. But behind every groundbreaking council meeting and crisis response were the unseen decisions, doubts, debates and moments of clarity that shaped the city's path forward.
Windows on Washington Square offers a rare, first-person account of how Charleston became the city we recognize today. Riley reflects on designing Waterfront Park, revitalizing King Street, expanding affordable housing and strengthening the city's preservation ethic-not as a list of achievements, but as lessons in collaboration, conflict and conviction. He recounts leading Charleston through Hurricane Hugo and navigating the profound, collective grief of the Mother Emanuel AME Church massacre, revealing how a city holds itself together when the world is watching.
Alongside these public moments are personal ones-dinner table conversations, afternoon swims with his sons and the steady support of his wife, Charlotte, all of whom shared both the weight and the hope of his work.
This is the story of how a city was built not just in its streets and parks, but in its choices, relationships and belief in what it could become.
Praise for Windows on Washington Square
"This is the story of a mayor who changed not just his city, but the way cities are built in America. Through the Mayors' Institute on City Design, founded in 1986, Mayor Riley has helped more than 1,200 mayors see themselves as their city's chief urban designer. This influence can be found in nearly every major urban design project in the nation, all rooted in the care and conviction that shaped the Charleston we know and love today."
-Trinity Simons Wagner
Executive Director, Mayors' Institute on City Design
"Mayor Riley's recounting of his remarkable career in Windows on Washington Square gives insight into the leadership he provided that transformed one of America's oldest cities into one of its most beloved. This is a beautiful memoir that is a joy to read!"
-Kendra Stewart, PhD
Professor of Political Science and Director, Riley Center for Livable Communities, College of Charleston
"A singular public servant, Joe Riley was the Mayor's Mayor. He is the gold standard that so many of us desired to be measured against. The respect that Mayor Riley has enjoyed is not because of the historic length of his tenure, but because of his principled leadership and the ability to articulate a bold vision in tandem with the technical ability to do the small things that make big visionary things happen. His principled leadership led not only Charleston, but our nation through the natural and man-made disasters of Hurricane Hugo, the tragic Emanuel Nine massacre, and more storied in Windows on Washington Square. He's one of a kind."
-Stephen Benjamin, JD
Mayor of Columbia, S.C. (2010-22); President, U.S. Conference of Mayors (2018-19); Attorney and Principal, The Benjamin Law Firm, LLC (Columbia)
