Web Design in Charleston: Case Pages for Restoration Trades

Updated November 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

Before a restored piazza can go on anyone’s website, it had to get past the Board of Architectural Review, and that approval is the best sales material a Charleston restoration firm owns. This page on web design in Charleston, South Carolina, is written for preservation contractors, masons, window restorers and architects. It walks through one project case page, section by section, using an illustrative project, so you can see where the approval record, the materials and the credits belong and what the build costs. Progression is based in New York and takes on Charleston projects remotely, with on-site sessions on request.

The approval a restoration has to win

In Charleston’s Old and Historic District, the city’s zoning ordinance says no structure may be erected, demolished or removed in whole or in part, and the exterior architectural appearance of no structure visible from a public right-of-way may be altered, until an application has been submitted to and approved by the Board of Architectural Review. A Certificate of Appropriateness is, in the ordinance’s words, the approval of a project by the Board that entitles the applicant to apply for a building permit.

That approval is a public record of work judged in advance, and most restoration websites leave it out. This page treats it as the first thing a visitor should see.

Web design in Charleston for work the Board has reviewed

A homeowner, an architect and a general contractor read a case page differently. The homeowner wants to know whether the firm has done work like theirs. The architect wants to see the detail and the stage. The contractor wants to know who did the trades. Historic Charleston Foundation describes itself as a nonprofit preservation organization with easement and covenant programs and two house museums, which makes it one more reader who may look at a firm’s record.

A Charleston web design company can build this once as a template and fill it for each project. Some people search for web designers in Charleston, SC, and others for north Charleston web design, and the case page serves both. If your question is the market and not the site, see our marketing agency in Charleston page.

One case page, labeled illustrative

The example below is a fictional project: a two story masonry house in the district with an addition and window restoration. It has no address and no real owner. The cards list its six sections, and every section below walks the card.

Nothing here is a real project, and it is shown only to make the structure concrete.

Section 1: the approval record at the top

Print the review stages reached, the case number and the date. Link to the city’s public record where one exists. Get the client’s permission before you show an address. Print the term Certificate of Appropriateness with its meaning, so a homeowner who has never seen one understands the line. Do not imply that the Board endorsed your firm.

What the approval does and does not say

It entitles the applicant to apply for a building permit, as the ordinance puts it. It is not a quality award.

Section 2: what stood there before

Before photographs belong near the top, each with a date. A before shot without a date proves little, because a visitor cannot tell whether it shows the building at the start of the work or ten years earlier. If the client agrees, add an existing conditions drawing. A Charleston web design page for a restoration is a record, so dates matter.

• A dated photograph of each elevation visible from the street.
• A one line description of the condition in plain words.
• An existing conditions drawing, if the client agrees.
• The date the photographs were taken.

Section 3: what the Board looked at

The ordinance says exterior architectural appearance includes architectural character, general composition and general arrangement of the exterior, its height, scale and mass in relation to its immediate surroundings, the kind, color and texture of the building material, and the type and character of all windows, doors, light fixtures, signs and appurtenant elements visible from a street. Each item can be a caption on the case page.

The stages map to three phases of the project. At Conceptual, the Board reviews general height, scale, mass and three dimensional form, according to the city’s document. At Preliminary it reviews details, finishes and materials, and at Final the completed construction documents and material specifications. A case page can show the stage reached for each part of the work. Web design for Charleston firms that does this lets a visitor follow the project in the Board’s own order.

Where does the stage go on a case page?

Beside each block it applies to. A visitor who sees Conceptual next to the massing photographs and Final next to the material specifications can follow the project in the Board’s order.

Captions that use the Board’s vocabulary

These captions are illustrations. They do not say what the Board prefers, and they are not a promise about any future application.

What a Charleston website design costs at this point in the walk

The case page template is built once and filled for each project, so the cost sits in the template, the first few projects and the index around them. Charleston website design for a small firm usually means a handful of complete projects, not a long list of thin ones.

Published bands for a portfolio site

These bands run from the typical low to the published high for the kind of site each row describes.

Fixed-scope figures from our own table

Our website design and development page publishes fixed-scope prices: a brochure site of five to eight pages from $9,500, a business site of ten to sixteen pages from $18,000, and a site plus content program of thirty to sixty pages from $36,000.

What should a before photograph show?

The whole elevation as seen from the street, then the detail that mattered. Keep the light and angle consistent with the after shot.

• The full elevation visible from the street.
• The detail the work addressed, such as a damaged sill.
• A date on each photograph.
• A note when a view was not available.

Section 4: materials and methods, named plainly

Name materials as the ordinance names them: the kind, color and texture of the building material. List products, sources and methods only if the firm can stand behind them. A mason’s or window restorer’s process can be written as plain steps. Do not say that a method is required or approved. For the contractor side of the build, see our contractor website design page.

• The material, in the ordinance’s terms.
• The method, in numbered steps a homeowner can follow.
• What was repaired and what was replaced, and why.
• A photograph of the work in progress, with the date.

Which materials need a source line?

Only the ones the firm can name and stand behind. A source line for a product the firm did not choose invites a question it cannot answer.

Website designers in Charleston, SC, who build these pages should keep the process section short and specific, because a homeowner will read it closely.

Who should approve a case page before it goes live?

Everyone named on it, in writing, plus the client for any address.

• The client, for any address and any photograph of the home.
• Each firm named in the credits.
• The architect, for any drawing shown.
• Counsel, if any wording touches a rule.

Section 5: who did the work and what they hold

List the general contractor, the architect and the sub-trades, with permission. Show each firm’s license type and number as a matter of trust. That is our recommendation, not a statement of what the law requires, and we state no licensing rule. Ask the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation or counsel what applies to you. See our architect website design page for the architect side.

Section 6: signs and the rest of the street

The city’s June 10, 2026 draft Board results show signs on the docket, among them requests for illuminated signs. A shop or restaurant has this same page in smaller form, and a sign project can be a case page. The ordinance names light fixtures and signs among the elements of exterior appearance. Website design in Charleston, SC, for a sign maker or a shop owner follows the same six sections, shortened.

Section 6 in practice: does a sign project deserve a case page?

Yes, in smaller form. A sign is a visible alteration that came before the Board, so a shop owner can show the request, the stage reached and the fabricator. Keep it to a short block rather than a full page.

Web design in Charleston, SC, once there are twenty case pages

At twenty projects the index matters. Organize by building type and by stage reached, and allow a filter by material. Keep each page’s facts its own, so no page is a swapped copy of another. Website design Charleston firms commission at that size should plan the index first and the pages second.

How do you keep twenty pages from reading alike?

Let each page’s facts be its own: its stage, its materials, its credits and its photographs. Use the template for structure, not for wording.

• An index page sorted by building type.
• A filter by stage reached.
• A filter by material.
• A date on every project, newest first by default.

Reading a proposal against the six sections

Hold any proposal against the six sections. The table shows what each one must include and what a weak answer sounds like.

If you searched for the best web design firm in Charleston, ask to see one project page built this way. A web design company in Charleston that cannot lay out all six sections for one project has not yet looked at your work.

Related services and guides

Pages that sit beside this case page:

• Architect website design
• Contractor website design
• Construction website design
• Website design and development
• Marketing agency in Charleston
• Web design by city

Frequently asked questions