on an escapade pt. duex

While in Charleston, Brandon and I visited the historical area of the city known as King Street. For those of you who may be unfamiliar, King Street is divided into 3 areas - the design district (home furnishing stores, design firms etc.), the fashion district (clothes for every age and style), and the antiques district (with well... lots of antiques) which all form a huge "strip" of sorts with restaurants and bars laced throughout. Of course I was super excited about the design and fashion districts so that was where we spent most of our time. And it may seem a little weird, but these days I'm far less interested in taking pictures of us (you know that whole hold the camera up -or in my case the cell phone - and take a picture of both of us for Facebook's sake). I prefer to capture things that inspire me, particular design and architecture. So if you're looking for smile and pose pics, sadly there will be none. Anyhoo, by far the most amazing architecture belonged to Urban Outfitters that was housed in a gorgeous historical building on King Street. Allow me to elaborate -

The entrance looked like it was pulled from a lecture in our art history class! 

 I kept thinking, "Where have I seen this?" It looks eerily similar to the Basilica of Maxentius. So beautiful.

Weaved wire at the cash wrap.

The juxtaposition of the wrought iron railing and old brick was so stunning.

 You know I'm all about the sales at Urban Outfitter, so I had to go check it out.

This was the view from upstairs. Massive chandelier, or what?

This is where they were keeping the sale goodies. Believe it or not, these buckets are sitting in front of a huge piece of glass. It was just that clear. Looks like you can just walk back there.

Of course it wouldn't be UO if there wasn't some cool woodworking involved. 

I wonder how long this took to construct.

Here's Brandon on the staircase. Check out that ceiling!

This was the opening to the dressing room. The friezes were breathtaking.

Here's the view of the sale balcony where I took the the first picture of the giant chandelier. 

The bottom layer is simply an observation deck, and the top platform is used for the sale merchandise.

Empty frames, simple and graphic

Dripping chandeliers over the dressing room area

Skylights over the dressing area

The chair and wall covering  inside my dressing room. After some googling, I found out that the building used to house Charleston's Garden Theatre, and they did a wonderful job preserving the details. Read about it here. Oh, Urban Outfitters, you never cease to amaze me!