One of the most exciting and stressful parts of the planning for the Philadelphia Sculpture Gym has been the location. We feel like so much is riding on the space...the size, the cost, the location of the building, the access, the light (we're sculptors...we like good light!)...that its almost paralyzing. However, it is our goal to begin to nail down some big things and this is one of them. We've looked at 3 more spaces and each had its own appeal...
The Warehouse
Though it may not look it in this photo, this
space has alot of potential...high ceilings, two floors, easily accessible, big roll down garage door.
The upstairs had skylights and lots of room (we forgot to snap a photo of the 2nd floor). And the owner was super nice (We've run into a bunch of really nice landlords in our searches so far, which surprised us both...if it were based on just the people themselves, we'd have almost a harder time choosing than we do already!)
The Old Ice Cream Factory
The location of this place is awesome. And again, super nice owners. It's also two floors and has a cool yard attached to it. The only issue is that we think it might be a bit too small for the amount of equipment we are going to need... We are working on figuring out if we can make it work or not.
[No photos...Justin didn't send me what he took...Will add them if he does.]
The Old Power Sub-station
Forgive me if I seem biased on this. I would've moved into this space in a heartbeat the first moment I saw it. The space is huge. The light...AMAZING! Even the basement was awesome! Another awesome owner. And there was glitter on the floor for Olivia to play with so she was a huge fan. At first though it was definitely too big and they weren't sure they wanted to divide the space. Now, however, they are willing to divide it (yes!). The only hesitation we have is the location. Its easily accessible by bus and car, and the El is only like 3 blocks away but its a bit hood between the El station and the building. I spoke to a friend, who lives like a block away from here, about this and he said the area is not as bad as I think it is...(I'm from NJ, people...I scare easily. I still haven't figured out how Justin got me to move to Kensington in the first place.) 1/2 of the building may still be a bit much for us so that and the lack of a giant roll down garage door (It has big dock height doors so this isn't that much of an issue) remain our only hesitations, so we are crunching numbers and seeing if it makes sense.
This is a shot of the 2nd floor:
The first floor (skylights! big beautiful skylights!):
Hell, even the basement is big and bright:
These guys are very much in the running...We had to cross the Bank and Old Hardware Co. off our
first list (No big entrances in the Bank and no running water in the Old Hardware Co., both deal breakers) but these are all good additions. Here's hoping we can make up our minds...soon!
These guys are very much in the running...We had to cross the Bank and Old Hardware Co. off our first list (No big entrances in the Bank and no running water in the Old Hardware Co., both deal breakers) but these are all good additions. Here's hoping we can make up our minds...soon!
Michael de Forest, Mo.S.P. '53, 2011
Michael de Forest, Mo.S.P. '53, 2011
Daniel Forest Hoffman, Ram, 2011
Daniel Forest Hoffman, Ram, 2011
Michael de Forest, The Frog - Rebirth and Transmutation, 2003
Beth Ireland, Totems, 2011
Beth Ireland, Artifacts, 2011
Beth Ireland, Artifacts, 2011
