A New Website for Historic Charleston Foundation

Last year the Historic Foundation marked its 70th year and experienced a changing of the guard when President and CEO of 17 years Kitty Robinson announced her retirement. The organization was at a critical moment, as was the city of Charleston. With a growing population, an ongoing increase in tourism, a rapidly escalating housing affordability crisis, and a rising sea level, Charleston has complex issues to navigate. To Historic Charleston Foundation, addressing these complicated issues are equally as important as preserving the historic structure of our city. They are actively digging in and leading the charge to advocate for all of the people that call our city home. We were honored to partner with them at this seminal moment to help share the story of their work and invite others to join the effort through an articulation of their brand, story, and the launch of a new website.

As always, we began our process with research and discovery to develop a guiding a story that both acknowledged the organization’s accomplished past while also conveying their fierce dedication to the future of our city. The work of HCF, and historic preservation in general, is as much about the future of the people as the buildings within the city. Check out the final story on their About Page.    

One of the main goals of the new website was to bring HCF’s advocacy work front and center. From the moment users land on the site, they’re immersed in both advocacy work and current preservation projects. Each preservation project pulls in related stories and programs ensuring visitors can access the community issues they care about and take action to get involved. The dynamic design allows the HCF to constantly add new content that’s fed to distinct parts of the site.

The website also includes a more robust research section that contains a fascinating photograph collection, the foundation’s digital records and a newly designed interactive maps section.

The house museums sections give a beautiful overview of each property and much like the preservation sections, pull in related blog posts so visitors can keep up with the latest news for each house.

The online store was given a fresh new look to better showcase the many items that natives and visitors alike love to purchase.

Check out the new website and get to know the amazing work that HCF does to ensure that the city remains a place all residents can love to call home.