Just off of Washington Square Park in Philadelphia, there's a small art gallery called the Bridgette Mayer Gallery. A champion of innovative contemporary art, owner Bridgette Mayer exhibits international artists from around the world. She also just finished an amazing year-long renovation of her gallery. With it, the exhibit space has more than doubled in size. However, it's the basement (or Level A, as Bridgette calls it) remodel that really struck me. It's hard to believe that a space that was so musty to start with, could ever be referred to as anything other than a basement...
As Bridgette tells us: Prior to the renovations, Level A was for the most part just a dark and dirty basement. In the dry and clean areas we stacked artworks in the Gallery's inventory, but otherwise the space was generally unusable for anything other than storage. With the renovations, I wanted to make sure we used the 1500 square feet in a smart and creative way.
Now, I am able to utilize the front part of Level A an office for myself and meeting/conference room where I can privately show artworks to clients.
Throughout Level A, everything was gutted, new electrical wiring was run throughout the space, all of the discrete rooms were separately built-out. Antique wood matching the upstairs Gallery floors was chosen to line specific accent walls in the office and conference room.
All throughout, clean and modern materials like marble, steel and glass were used to give the space a clean and sophisticated appearance. Sliding glass doors to the office and conference room create a particularly sleek look.
We retained the original brick vaulted hallway between the front and back portions of Level A in order to create a unique wine storage space. Bottles line the walls on specially-designed racks.
We also expanded the storage capacity to keep our artworks in a more presentable manner with museum-quality art racks.
I don't know about you, but I'd give Level A, an "A" on its renovations. (And that marble-topped desk?? A definite A+, in my book!) Thanks for sharing, Bridgette!
RESOURCES OF NOTE:
• Artwork - Eileen Neff
• Furniture design, architecture - Michael Ryan
• Construction - Hanson General Contracting
(Image: Bridgette Mayer Gallery)
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Comments (37)
Now that's just showing off! Lol. Bloody good job well done!
Yeah great. Next time I'm renovating my 1500 square foot art gallery basement with my unlimited budget, I'll be sure to look here for inspiration.
great!
Wow, RUTHTOOTH. A wee bit nasty I'd say.
I think the renovation is SAWEEET!
I wouldn't have said it, but roothtooth said exactly what I was thinking :) Looks beautiful, but um...that basement is bigger than my whole house.
I don't mean to be nasty, it's just that there seems to be so many posts at the moment of projects that are so out of reach of regular people you know? It's clearly a very nice transformation but it's just a bit far fetched.
I find that the "out of reach" projects make the best inspiration.
...That wine cellar is to die for....
Amazing! I can't get over the bricked arch door way that leads into wine cell...
I agreed w/ Ruthtooth that some of the posts are a bit far out of reach... and I also agreed that these type of posts do make great inspirations. I'd take a look at these changes and thought to myself "what in the world...".. then, attempt something similar on a much smaller scale. That being said, some other "before-after" are like "huh?" to me. =P
Big Newsflash! the editors learned a long time ago that they can't please everyone...so they don't try to!
truly Creative (non bitter) people look at every post with an objective eye and see the good, the bad and the ugly and appreciate it all...and take away from it whatever works best for them.
The "out of reach" are some of the most fun to look at! Not everything has to be something you're going to take away and do yourself. I like the mix of attainable and unattainable. Pick what you like to use as inspiration and scroll past what you aren't interested in. Simple as that. If you don't get to sneak a peek at unattainable in real life, I'm glad sites like AT provide a glimpse of these beautiful projects : )
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the brick arch!
WOW! What an incredible job!
That driftwood wall is the exact color of wood I need on my floors.
amazing.. are they available to come do my basement? :)
I love that they embraces the brickwork and respected the bones of the space. They gave it a new lease on life. Very respectable. Nothing too showy. Good job.
What project would completely fit with every reader? I pretty much lurk and gather, but lately it seems there is an over abundance of whiny, nasty comments on how much projects are disliked. With every post I look at I see something I could use and something I dislike--isn't that what we are all looking for? I guess I am outnumbered but I take what I like and leave the rest.
I gotta agree with RuthTooth on this one. If I wanted to look at such vast renovations, I would have looked at EntireFloorOfYourHomeTherapy.com. This is the type of thing I skip over. (And, yes, I looked at this one, skipped over it, and read through the comments to see how others reacted to this "inspiration."
I think the problem here is that this post was tagged as "Before and After" rather than "Inspiration" - a category that they at least used to have.
I miss the old apartment therapy :(. It's been turning into mansion therapy as of late.
I don't get the complaints about this being an "out of reach" space. Isn't it part of a commercial gallery? It isn't a home, so don't compare it to your home. We're just looking at it for inspiration.
Every project is on a different part of the spectrum. Some are expensive transformations of out-of-reach mansions; others are spray paint on a Goodwill hat rack. It's a little perverse to ask AT to stick to showcasing projects that "regular people" can do. (A) The readership includes all kinds of people, regular and ir-. (B) The idea is "Look what is possible," not "Slavishly duplicate this room in your own identical house." The takeaway here, for me, is a renewed impulse to say "If I were being my most creative, what ideas would I have for my room?"
People, inspiration doesn't mean you are looking to copy the idea- so why is it you can't get inspiration from an art gallery just because it's large and maybe even costly. Maybe someone has a single brick wall in their house, and now they have the idea for a wine rack, etc. Some people really are so bitter and jealous! I say this is amazing!
Sign of a smart and good interior designer is that they know when to keep the old. These guys ROCK! I saw that brick archway and thought "Oh I hope they kept that!!" and you did and made it fantastic!!! Awesome - great job. Looks like a very inspiring place to work now!
Still doesn't have windows.
all the"before" pics looks like a jail. and the after pics looks like a museum-art gallery- thing that u would have to pay money to get into. (not a good thing) this IS a persons home, right?
oh, sorry. i just looked. not a home. a art gallery. well! no wonder.... now, why r all u guys all fighting 'bout how your basement is too small? DUH!!! :)
Nicely done!
I think it's gorgeous. The way the space was re-imagined and the colours and textures and use of light really are inspirational. I think it's too easy to take potshots... especially on the basis of budget. Everyone knows it's very easy to spend money badly. Spending it well and achieving an elegant result is another part of where the inspiration comes from.
Totally agree with RUTHTOOTH, I barely click on links anymore because I already know most of these homes are so far out of reach especially for an inspiration! Nevertheless, this is BEAUTIFUL!
Nothing about this feels particularly inspiring to me. It doesn't have to do with the budget, it just doesn't knock my socks of, but then again why should it? It is the behind the scenes of an art gallery. I care more about the art they are showing than their meeting spaces. I just moved to Philly and love contemporary art. I am excited to check out level B.
This a business, not a home. While they may have spent money on the renovation, assuming they are good business people it's with a return on that investment in mind. They now have more space to display their product (in this case art) and meet with clients without having to buy or rent additional square footage. Over the long term this will hopefully mean a financial benefit. They now have a proper storage space for the art, which could not have been done in a musty basement, etc.
It happens to be beautiful on top of (hopefully) being a good investment in their business. Nicely done.
Absolutely gorgeous! That wine cellar stole my heart.
I like the square can lights in the hallway -- I could see those in my kitchen. (A piece of "real-world" inspiration, perhaps.)
Plus, I could envision a small area of art storage, in my furnace room maybe, similar to shown. (Because I keep finding thrift store original paintings and other things for under $10 framed, and I CAN'T leave them behind!)
The arched hall is gorgeous, so glad they kept it! (Although THAT I won't be replicating any time soon! ;^) )
THIS IS AN ART GALLAERY!!! NOT A HOME!!! READ PEOPLE!!! This space is stunning! I love almost everything about it!
That is downright inspiring....excellent work!
Very nice. Love the office space. Would not be able to incorporate the marble into my budget, but am inspired to renovate my tired basement. Nice ideas, great job!
Very cool. I know it's probably out of reach for most but it is inspirational. As long as this site continues to have the range from simple/cheap to hard/expensive, I'll keep reading. I can only re-do so many lamp shades and dressers.