Philadelphia developer, Pearl Properties, recently reimagined the former, iconic Bonwit Teller department store in Center City as trendy apartments with a sought after address. Original art deco details were preserved and complemented through creative interior design. TEND took those cues to two exterior rooms on the sixth floor, both surrounded by the building and open to the sky, which serve as shared amenities for the residents. Adjacent to the catering kitchen and lounge areas, the larger space houses elegant dining and seating options with a unique use of plants?wall art made from succulents, hanging wire spheres encasing ferns, and groupings of contemporary containers with striking compositions. A smaller space serves as a visual focal point within the fitness center. TEND treated this glassed room as a large terrarium, proposing logs, stones, moss, ferns, and an undulating, colored glass ground plane as a calm and meditative feature. The dining terrace was completed for the building?s opening in 2015.
Concept Plans for the dining terrace and terrarium
Planted sphere