Sunlit stone facade of a Halden & Co. project at dusk

Halden & Co. — Builders & General Contractors

Construction with
intention.

Four decades building landmarks, libraries and the houses that hold the quiet hours. Every project answers a single question — will this still be here in a hundred years?

See our work Begin a project →

01 — Charleston, SC 02 — Established 1986 03 — Licensed in NC · SC · GA

Practice

A short list of things done thoroughly.

We turn down more work than we accept. The four practices below are where we do our deepest thinking — and where Halden carpenters, engineers and project leads spend their weeks.

01
Commercial & Civic

Office, hospitality and cultural buildings delivered on a single contract. Curtain-wall, mass timber, structural masonry — whichever the brief calls for.
Commercial casework →
02
Custom Residential

A house is a thirty-year decision. Our residential studio partners with architects (or draws the plans itself) on twelve private homes a year — never more.
Residential casework →
03
Restoration

Antebellum porches, ironwork, lime-mortar repointing — work that asks for craftsmen, not crews. We keep the last serious team of restoration carpenters in the lowcountry.
Restoration casework →
04
Design–Build

One contract, one set of drawings, one accountable team — from the first sketch through the final certificate of occupancy. The fastest way to a building you'll be proud of.
Design–build casework →

Halden carpenters working on a timber-framed roof

The studio

A building company
run by builders.

Halden & Co. was founded in 1986 by Thomas Halden — a third-generation stonemason who believed a general contractor should still know how to hang a door. Forty years on, the firm is owned by its senior project leaders.

We carry six concurrent projects, no more. Every job has a named partner on site at least once a week, and an owner-level contact you can call on a Sunday afternoon — because most of the time, that's when buildings actually need someone.

Office: 104 Spring Street, Charleston
Founded: 1986, by Thomas Halden
Team: 42 — including 9 partners
Licensed: North & South Carolina, Georgia

$420M Put in place across the last decade.

39yrs Of continuous family ownership.

246 Projects delivered — and counting.

12 AIA & National Trust honors received.

Selected work

Recent projects.

A short selection from the last three years. The full portfolio — including private residences shown by request — is available on invitation.

All projects →

Glass and steel commercial office at twilight

Commercial · 2024 · Charleston

Meeting Street Exchange

64,000 sq ft of speculative office above a working public market. Mass-timber frame, hand-finished brass detailing.

Modern residential interior with warm wood and stone

Residential · 2024 · Sullivan's Island

The Marsh House

A 4,800 sq ft private residence sited two feet above the hundred-year flood line, framed entirely in salt-grade cypress.

Detailed restoration work on a historic brick facade

Restoration · 2023 · Beaufort

Bay Street Customs House

Full restoration of an 1837 federal customs house — including replacing 14,000 hand-pressed bricks with kiln-matched replicas.

Concrete and timber civic building with a deep colonnade

Civic · 2023 · Savannah

Forsyth Branch Library

A 22,000 sq ft public library wrapped in board-formed concrete and white oak — delivered on a single design-build contract.

In their words

“There are firms that build buildings, and there are firms that build trust. Halden & Co. is the rare one that does both — they finished our museum addition on the day they promised in 2019, and I still call Tom Halden when a hinge sticks.”

Margaret Ellingsworth Director, Charleston Civic Trust

From the journal