The SoWa Boston Design Hub Blossoms

A 10-minute walk from the heart of Boston’s opioid crisis and a skip and jump from Pine Street Inn homeless shelter, SoWa design district is the new hub of the city’s design community. In the last year alone, it has become a hot spot that attracted the crème de la crème of European luxury design names like Meridiani and Paola Lenti for the first time and saw Molteni&C open a newly expanded flagship space.

But when artist Adrienne Christos set up her studio here in 2012, walking to work from her nearby loft made her heart beat — and not in a good way, she explains.

“The South End has always had a gritty fringe and when you talk about SoWa specifically, that’s the fringe. It’s still rough, with shelters and the infamous Methadone Mile, but it is also mushrooming with new multimillion-dollar condos, top restaurants and a 50,000-square-foot Whole Foods,” she says after a long day of work, with drops of paint still splattering her fingers and jeans.

For much of the latter part of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, Bostonians born and bred knew treading the border of the Dorchester area and South End area south of Washington at Harrison Avenue was a risk, even though the nearby trendy gay bar and restaurant scene just blocks away was too hard to resist.

Until last year the tent city known as Methadone Mile, an open-air drug market, was still intact but has since been dismantled due to an uptick in sex trafficking and violence. SoWa’s (an abbreviation for South of Washington) direct neighbor, homeless shelter and housing hub Pine Street Inn on 444 Harrison Avenue, remains a bittersweet city landmark. Its tower was designed after Siena, Italy’s Torre del Mangia by iconic New England architect Edmund M. Wheelwright in 1893. The building was in its early years the city’s fire department headquarters, built after a sweeping blaze grounded much of the area. In 1969 it began housing homeless men suffering from alcoholism and today it provides permanent residences for those experiencing homelessness and continues to operate as an emergency shelter.

About 20 years ago, SoWa Boston’s founder, Mario Nicosia, saw the area’s affordable old buildings as an opportunity and decided to transform them into a cultural hub. On Sundays the pedestrian-only Thayer Street turns into a festive open market with music, veggie burgers and local artisan craft.

The neighborhood is also home to Casa Design Group, which was started by Zhanna Drogobetsky in 2008 as a small boutique-style design showroom dedicated to the importation of international furnishings. The group has since grown into a multi-showroom of curated interior and exterior products for both residential and commercial spaces and carries most of the top Italian design brands such as Molteni&C, Porada, Kettal, Roda, Meridiani, Living Divani, Rimadesio, Gallotti&Radice, Henge and many more across four showrooms: Casa Design Living, Casa Design Outdoor, the Molteni&C flagship, and Giorgetti. Drogobetsky has played a huge role in amping up the neighborhood’s value. This fall Casa Design Group launched a shop-in-shop for Gallotti&Radice. Meridiani is currently being showcased in a small boutique space within the Casa Design space but will soon have its own dedicated flagship.

“We were among the first to open a high-end showroom in SoWa. We were confident it was the right place for us with so many design and architectural studios nearby. We’re proud to have paved the way for others… to grow in this vibrant area,” Drogobetsky explains.

In 2015, Molteni&C debuted in Boston with what Drogobetsky called a “boutique” space and in May of 2024 cut the ribbon on its sprawling 3,224-square-meter showroom space large enough to house its kitchens and outdoor collections. In 2019, upscale Italian furniture brand Giorgetti also opened in Boston through Casa Design Group. For Giorgetti in particular, the Boston opening was a springboard to new monobrand stores in Los Angeles, Houston, New York and most recently Washington, D.C.

When Giorgetti — founded in the late 1890s by Luigi Giorgetti — opened in Boston, SoWa was already in the midst of a transformation. “Over the past two decades, SoWa has undergone a radical transformation. What was once a forgotten industrial zone has blossomed into a lively center of creativity and culture. Old warehouses have been converted into galleries, studios and lofts, making the area a magnet for artists and entrepreneurs,” recalls Giorgetti Group chief executive officer Giovanni del Vecchio.

Like New York City’s NoMad, Boston’s SoWa is becoming the place to be for foreign luxury interiors brands that seek to prove themselves in the U.S. “The SoWa district has become synonymous with the highest quality craftsmanship and a thriving local economy,” del Vecchio adds.

For decades the Boston multibrand design store scene was dominated by Montage, a design hub located in the city’s Back Bay district. Last year Montage ceded its property to Flos B&B Italia Group, which officially opened a B&B Italia there in November. The Italian company Dexelance, which is home to upscale furniture brands like Meridiani, Gervasoni, Saba and upscale lighting firm Davide Groppi, finalized with Drogobetsky last year. The timing was right because it was in sync with Giorgetti’s entrance and Molteni&C’s expansive new boutique and showroom, which sits adjacent to Casa Design Italiana’s Boston headquarters. Dexelance U.S. CEO Renato delle Side said Boston was ripe for growth given its highly educated population and reputation as a cultural and arts mecca.

“Particularly in recent years, the city has seen several commercial and residential high-profile new developments, which has generated a lot of hype for companies like ours operating within the industry. The city and its developers have done an excellent job blending old-world charm with sleek contemporary designs — just look at the Seaport,” delle Side says.

Speaking of the Boston Seaport district, the oceanside area off Boston Harbor consists of 33 acres of waterfront land and covers 20 refreshed city blocks. A historic port area, it is now thick with new residential, hotel, office, retail, entertainment and cultural offerings as well as public open spaces. It’s also home to another burgeoning design hub, Boston Design Center, which houses Janus et Cie, a luxury furniture firm that is part of Haworth’s Lifestyle Design; France’s Pierre Frey; Italian kitchen and bath firm Scavolini, and family-run firm Ornare, a Brazilian luxury furniture kitchens, wardrobes and living rooms firm. But even though it eventually chose the Seaport area, Ornare’s international director Stefan Schattan says SoWa Boston was a top contender.

“As for SoWa, it was one of our options due to its creative atmosphere; however, there weren’t any available spaces there. We believe that being in the BDC building provides greater comfort for parking, is in a safe area, and offers a one-stop shop where you can find multiple dealers from various decoration sectors, fostering stronger relationships with more showrooms,” Schattan admits at a dinner at the firm’s flagship in Milan.

Boston native Annette Dardeno Given, who founded The Charles Realty in 1984, has watched firsthand the area around SoWa transform. She’s also witnessed the downside to the area’s development: an exodus of a diverse community of residents to outlying areas.

“Property prices in the SoWa area have skyrocketed since its transformation into a design district. Former warehouse buildings have been converted into luxurious condominiums, with some properties fetching prices of up to $3 million and more. As artists who once resided in the area have relocated to the outskirts, one may wonder about the fate of the old residents,” she says, referring to a report by broker-owned multiple listing services MLS Property Information Network stating that the average sale price in the area rocketed to $1,250,270 in 2023 from $694,933 in 2013.

Indeed, the district has emerged as a prime location for art galleries, jewelry stores and boutiques, offering an alternative amid the city’s rising prices dominated by high street shops and the sort of luxury stores that line the cobblestone blocks of Newbury Street. For Dardeno Given, artists like Christos elevated the local art scene and built up SoWa’s reputation to what it is today. But harmony, she says, isn’t a guarantee.

“The challenge now lies in fostering a harmonious coexistence between the upscale neighborhood residents, the Pine Street Inn community, and the historic residents. The Pine Street Inn has brought a new wave of residents to the area, some of whom have actively contributed to the betterment of the neighborhood,” she adds, noting the efforts of the volunteers to improve living standards for its residents and pioneer opportunities with the help of the city of Boston.

Christos, whose frescoes and contemporary paintings have been commissioned by culinary star Rachael Ray and whose interactive artwork was showcased at the “The Big Little Lies” premiere party at Jazz at Lincoln Center, says she, too, has seen her career grow in tandem with the neighborhood.

And even though the panache of the enclave she so loves has driven up the rent of her studio by 30 percent last year, she’s staying.

“I’m thrilled to be surrounded by contemporary international brands and powerhouse local interior designers and architects.  The concentration of art and design here has ushered in a wave of large-scale commercial design projects and new relationships. It’s a very exciting time at SoWa where symbiotic relationships are forming. These sort of tenants are just what this city needs.”