single family
A modern aesthetic and Persian-influenced patterning guide the row house renovation. The remodel involved reorganizing the kitchen to maximize storage while creating a more comfortable eating space, adding a powder room, renovating a child's bedroom, and building a new family room addition up among the treetops.
press
Dwell, "Pattern Play Inspired this Philadelphia Row House Renovation"
photography by Sam Oberter
new construction
Farms have historically been accretive enterprises; you need another chicken coop and build one over here, and then add an upgraded barn over there but leave the old one to sag, etc. We were inspired by the grouped buildings of a traditional farm and so broke the Texas Forever Home into a series of connected structures.
We designed the home for a young family as the culmination of their domestic dreams to live on their own ranch. They intend to wind down their days in the home. We designed the family’s entry sequence through a gracious mudroom off a sunny carport.
Farm and Ranch Magazine, “Sister Style” page 20-23
photography by Lines and Light Studio
built by Wesmar Construction
renovation
We stripped down the finishes to expose a graceful minimalism for this young family’s home. The pure geometries and low slung heft of the couches and chairs root the living and dining room in a sense of peaceful gravity. A simple color palette of white and black with bright accents seeks to balance simplicity with joy — a balance we fought for at the indoor climbing wall where bold hexagons bring dynamism and the black-on-black color scheme keeps the peace.
photography by 20/20 Visual Media
built by Buckminster Green
millwork by Edgewood Made
press
Philadelphia Inquirer, "This historical Fairmount home is a kids' oasis"
single family
A collaboration with Hive Mind Construction, the renovation of this historic home opened the kitchen to the dining area, uncovered and brought back to life an abandoned fireplace, and gently modernized the finishes.
“The centerpiece of our home renovation, a floating black walnut spiral staircase is breathtaking and brings architectural distinctiveness as well as light into our row home. The project also gave us several more feet of precious space thanks to the removal of a chimney we did not realize was behind a wall. Whelan came into our space and saw all kinds of fresh possibilities, but also succeeded at learning and honoring our aesthetic.”
client, Queen Village
I love the texture and strength of raw steel. We opened the kitchen to both the backyard and dining room -- the steel supports two stories of historic brick. We designed a hovering stair of American black walnut wood. We worked closely with the fabulous craftsman who built it.
And with this project I finally got a client to sign on for a pink bathroom. We wove a fanciful historic flair into the space with wood paneling and a painted clawfoot tub. The sconce is recycled glass by Remark Glass -- made in Philly.
single family
We removed the hallway and demising wall to enlarge the front room of this colonial era row house. Respecting the home's historic bones (Benedict Arnold lived a couple doors up) we maintained the window and ceiling trim and old pine floors. During demolition we excavated a hidden second fireplace and embraced the quirkiness by giving the living room two.
Photographs by 2020 Visual Media
construction by Philly Green Building
single family
The addition and renovation can be thought of as found object architecture. The tight budget and short completion time frame lead us to approach the project as an improvisation; we riffed with whatever came our way. We salvaged the floors, exposed the old beams, and bared the rough brick. The bathroom pulls together a sink and shower door salvaged from another project.
We added a clerestory to bring light deep into the interior. All the rooms are naturally lit. The home balances a sometimes crude craft sensibility with a refined control of space and light.
Select photography by Matthew Garret.
press
flying kite, "rethinking the rowhome"
condominiums
For the first project, we reworked the condominium to segregate - rather than open up the floor plan. Unusual! We strove to satisfy the potentially conflicting goals of forming discrete rooms while enlarging the overall sense of space. We created a formal entry sequence with a foyer and anteroom which opens to the den and living room. Symmetrical doors to the bedroom expand the bank of windows through both the bedroom and living space to allow a gracious city view.
The client for the second project retired to a Philly urban high-rise. Condo buildings can be fabulous places to age-in-place -- with no stairs and proximate community. We renovated the kitchen with custom black walnut cabinetry. The bathroom features possibly-never-needed grab bars. McMullin Design group did the furnishings.
The last project involves merging two separate mirror-image condominiums into a single grand residence. The condos were connected into a single unit with a sweeping 180 degree view. Photography by Sam Oberter
press
Philadelphia Magazine, “High Rise Condo Makeover”
landscape
For the first project we were tasked to create a garden in a narrow footprint which could be enjoyed visually from within the house as well as inhabited in the summer. The integrated bench and planters create topography for lounging and gardening. Plantings are incorporated wherever possible, including on top of the fence.
select photography by Stuart Goldenberg
press "Queen Village Courtyard"
The second project respects that sun is beautiful, but sometimes it's best enjoyed from under a shady cover. We designed this shading structure and patio for dining and lounging during the heat of summer and rainy summer days. We chose bright durable furniture from lolldesigns and a firepit that doubles as a coffee table for this covered lounge area. Our landscape design juxtaposed water-infiltrating gravel with concrete planks at the walkway.
The third project, “410 at Society Hill” is a new construction luxury condominium building. We designed the common garden in a formal rectilinear language to compliment the building. The garden is built over the parking garage as a green roof with limited soil depth. The varied heights of the planters screen the first floor unit windows. We created nooks for outdoor dining, a lounge area by a linear pool, and a grand lawn.
The 4th project involves a full makeover of a barren roof deck. We designed a shading structure to withstand the wind and beating sun with a retractable roof and side curtains. We chose bold, crisp and heavy furniture — don’t want those chairs blowing off the roof!
single family
We enjoy taking on very small projects.. Stairs, bathrooms, kitchens -- even screens for the family garbage -- we've done it all! We enjoy the challenge of coming up with a good design solution no matter how small the scale.
EMPLOYERS STRIVE to attract their staff back to work on site. To that end, we worked with an innovative client, talented interior decorator, supportive developer, and a bevy of artists to create a functional, raw and joyous office environment. We designed, organized and uncovered the warehouse interior to adapt it as an office for a digital agency.
public art
KOI BIKE RACK_ A winning entry in a national design competition, the bike rack is inspired by a Japanese textile and the lazy fluidity of koi in a pond, the bike rack's sides are laser cut of stainless steel. The doubled and separated side-plates painted white inside create a changing moiré effect as the viewer moves around the rack. Internal lighting alternates between a cool stable white beam and delicately flickering shades of blue -- recalling reflections through water. The lighting bling deters thieves and gives bikes a deservedly glamorous hitch.
"For pure elegance, nothing came close to Koi...if the bike world needs a new standard, this may be it."
Inga Saffron, Architecture Critic
press
The Philadelphia Inquirer, "Changing Skyline: Designer's aim for a better bike rack"
The Philadelphia Inquirer, "Sure it's art, but it's also a bike rack"
Dwell, "The Bicycle Rack Reimagined"
selected photography by Kristen Zubriski
SPRINGTIME RAMBLE_ The winning entry in a city-wide competition, our public art awning captures the in-and-out consciousness of taking a walk in the city. Sometimes alert to one's surroundings, sometimes lost in thought -- the sidewalk scenes illustrated in sandblasted glass jump from residential to commercial street -- captured moments during a ramble in the cool wet of spring.
multi-family
Jibe Design and Naquib Hossain collaborated on the winning entry for the Philadelphia Housing Authority Sustainable Housing Competition. The project was honored with a Philadelphia AIA Award.
We created a masterplan for 32 housing units along Markoe Street in West Philadelphia. Our plan called for the renovation of the existing structures and the careful knitting of new homes into the empty lots to complete the gapped street edge. The new homes are designed to last, of durable materials with careful construction detailing. The highly insulated new homes and renovations integrate a clerestory into an efficient daylighting, heating, and cooling system.
select photography by Sam Oberter
press
Metro, Philadelphia, "Re-Energizing Public Housing"
ABC 6, "Young Architect Wins Contest to Transform Neighborhood"
multi-family
Five years after completing the adaptive reuse of the adjacent historic structure, we begin work on a seven story addition. The primary design challenge comes from wedding a new seven story addition to the original four story building. The solution involves a lot of stairs! We have chosen to consider the addition as a modern neighbor following the community's pattern of attached and varied buildings.
mixed-use
The renovation of Orinoka Mills, one of the last behemoths of textile manufacturing in North Kensington, will signal a powerful first injection of investment in a struggling area.
Constructed in the early twentieth century, Orinoka Mills serves as an icon of long past boom times and at the same time the potential for change. Located on the “wrong” side of Lehigh Avenue, property vacancy, high unemployment, and open air drug trafficking are perennial struggles for the area.
Orinoka Mills is strategically positioned to not just tell the story of Kensington’s industrial character, both its economic successes and environmental challenges, but also to begin the reversal of forty years of disinvestment -- by transforming into an ambitious mixed use development branded Orinoka Civic House.
The lower levels of the building will serve as the new home for NKCDC’s central offices. Having long served the areas of Kensington immediately south of Lehigh, this new affordable housing, administrative, and public gathering space will place NKCDC in the midst of its new target population north of Lehigh and ensure that the positive development on view south of the Avenue continues northward both in concert with and in service of its North Kensington community.
Orinoka Civic House is designed to be occupied by people who have proven a lifetime commitment to community activism and civic duty, with preference given to adults over the age of fifty who live nearby. Similar to other naturally occurring retirement communities in Philadelpiha towers, the building is designed to house mature adults with a desire to age-in-place in a secure community of like-minded neighbors.
press
PlanPhilly, July 23, 2014, "Pinning future for New Kensington on Orinoka Mills reuse"
Hidden City Philadelphia, October 28, 2015, "NKCDC Elevates North Kensington With Orinoka Civic House"
