The Philadelphia Inquirer: A Place to Browse-- or Boogie, January 2003
On a quiet street in Old City, a dramatic showroom is turning heads. Beyond its windows hang fabulous lighting fixtures fashioned from found or recycled objects, including shovels, test tubes, kettles and nautical paraphernalia. Inside the deep, high-ceilinged space you'll notice other art and furniture - some sedate, some provocative, such as a chair made of baby-food jars and a chaise created from 6,400 nickels.
Welcome to bahdeebahdu (pronounced ba-DEE-ba-DOO) at 309 Cherry St., which merges Warren Muller's one-of-a-kind lighting with RJ Thornburg's fine eye for interior design. Both men operated in smaller quarters nearby before joining forces in this former warehouse in May. The unusual name comes from a dog that belonged to a neighbor of Muller's 30 years ago, when he came to town from New York to attend Philadelphia College of Art. "I forgot about it until we were trying to think about names," he said, "and nothing was fun enough."
The space has allowed the men to stretch out. Muller has taken on larger commissions, such as a 15-foot chandelier for a rustic Utah home. Thornburg, who co-owned a furnishings and design store, has been able to display artists' work "rather than line up 10 vases on a shelf." What they did not anticipate is that bahdeebahdu, replete with baby grand piano, would become sought after as a party venue.
Late last year, Collab, a group of area design professionals, brought 150 people there to fete German-born lighting designer Ingo Maurer. Just before that, Old City's Clay Studio used it as the setting for a fund-raising auction. Later this month, the combined showroom/studio will see a wedding for friends of Thornburg's. The groups were known and respected and offered exposure to potential clients, Thornburg said. But there have been other requests to use bahdeebahdu, and so far, Thornburg and Muller haven't made up their minds. "Ultimately, it could be hard on the furniture," Thornburg said, referring to the sedate upholstered seating he's selected as a foil to Muller's extraordinary work, which ranges from $750 to $30,000. Bahdeebahdu, by the way, offers interior design service, at $150 an hour to consult.
As to the place's appeal, Thornburg surveyed its full 145-foot depth, 18-foot width, and 14-foot ceiling before noting that "people are always looking for something different. I want to think the lighting has a lot to do with it. "It's amazing," said Ken Foster, co-owner of Foster's Urban Homeware in Old City. "I've been living in Philadelphia for 16 years, half of that in Old City, and walked by it [before it was refurbished], and never knew this was here." Architect Wesley Wei, who owns the property, collaborated with the partners to tailor the renovation to their needs. That included upgrading the electrical system and installing heating and cooling, as well as ceiling beams to hold fixtures and support a pulley system to move Muller's light sculptures from the workshop in the rear out to the front.
David Seltzer, who attended the Collab party, appreciated the result. "It's a fun spot," said Seltzer, a board member of the Atwater Kent Museum, who could envision museums, looking to earn income from special events in unusual places, taking note.
Seltzer recently attended the 32d reunion of his Cheltenham High School class at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, where, he observed mischievously, "some of my classmates were indistinguishable from the mummies." Here, he enjoyed the imaginative works all around him, including the chaise made of nickels by Johnny Swing ($18,000), while others focused on Isaiah Zagar's mosaic panels ($4,000 each), or eyed their favorite Muller fixture.
For interior designer Michael Shannon, it was the chandelier with the red shovel handles suspended from hooks ($4,000). "It's the closest thing to a classical chandelier but has a sense of whimsy," said Shannon, who hasn't yet used Muller's lighting in his work but wants to. "It may wind up in my third floor." Shannon, too, could imagine bahdeebahdu as the setting for an engagement, birthday or cocktail party. For Eric Rymshaw, who selected it for the Collab event, it was the perfect place to hail Maurer.
Indeed, the innovative lighting designer, who received Collab's 2002 Design Excellence Award, seemed to be having a good time.
"Evidently, there's a very creative person at work here," Maurer said, "and he has a very different way of working than I do. For me, the light comes first and then t