Where design, art, industry, and business all belong together
On a once-shuttered stretch of Storehouse Row at the Charleston Navy Yard, the world’s most irresistible and meticulously realized treasures await. Cavernous, sun-filled rooms that were for years devoted to military equipment and government paper-pushing have come together as the Charleston Design District. Up and running since 2025, it has reanimated the long-fallow former Charleston Naval Base and added new luster to Charleston’s status as a tastemaker. Encompassing both the multi-phase development of Navy Yard Charleston and Navy Yard Industrial Campus, the Charleston Design District is a linchpin of an ever-evolving, mixed-use neighborhood converging history, innovation, and high style.
Top of the trade
Set your sights on one of these first-to-market showrooms, and you’ll find the evocative florals or enduring patterns of Schumacher. In another, admire the rich grains and parquets of Textures hardwood flooring. Yet another trumpets the latest from Kravet, the heralded manufacturer transporting wallcoverings.
In another sweep of square footage, you can survey the industrial-chic factory of The Urban Electric Co., the Charleston-based manufacturer of exactingly crafted lanterns and pendants and sconces that are the hallmark of the luxury lighting fixture company.
Peppered through the buildings are local makers, too. For starters, there is the cast-iron burnish of Smithey Ironware, the burled wood and steely blades of Middleton Made Knives, and the unerring eye of the design collective Fritz Porter. More have recently joined, including Hue & Dot by Mirth Studio, Zuma Imports, and Phillip Jeffries.
