Expanding Spring Arts to a Creative Destination
We recently packed up our office on Sansom Street and said goodbye to Center City to move to the Spring Arts district.
In keeping with our mission to transform under-utilized spaces and impact communities through design, we have joined forces with the Arts & Crafts Holdings team and other like-minded organizations to help create a destination out of this emerging neighborhood.
Our new space is not simply an ‘office’, just as we are not simply a ‘branding agency.’
Antoinette Marie Johnson
Just a 7-minute walk from the center of downtown Philadelphia, we have created an industrial, edgy, light-flooded, experimental creative space with 13-foot tall ceilings, designed to be a testing ground for designers, artists, and chefs to build their next great vision. The plan for the space has been a dream of founder Antoinette Marie Johnson for over a decade, encompassing more than just an office but also an interior design studio, test experimental kitchen lab, floral studio, and photoshoot space. The new 3,800 square foot space at 1021 Hamilton Street is a female-powered creative mecca for the company and for the community, and it’s every bit of what the team imagined.
Range of chairs and sofa from Dyphor in Brooklyn with custom pillows in pastel colors from Adaptations in Greenpoint Brooklyn
Mid-century inspired glass conference room table from Organica modern furniture
The history of the building has uniquely female energy. A 3-story, 35,000 SF building on a cobblestone street, it’s got relics of historical industry context. In the mid-1800’s it served as the location of a school until the late-1800’s where it acted as part of the marble yard that existed in the neighborhood. In the early-1900’s the property was used as a machine shop that manufactured boring bars for locomotives and lathe work.
The arts-focused former industrial district which once housed a historic printing press, a bicycle manufacturing company, a tannery, and railroad offices, is now home to a handful of breweries, artist studios, restaurants, creative class makers, and now one of Philadelphia’s leading woman-owned branding and design firms. At 1021-25 Hamilton, Love City Brewing Co. occupies the ground floor space and Cohere’s creative studios populate the upper floors.
While some might see this as a surprise, it comes as a clear full-circle trajectory for our agency, largely inspired by the re-brand launch party 2 years ago.
The move begins with Craig Grossman, a partner who helped Antoinette land our last home in the historic Biddle Building in Midtown Village. He has over fifteen years of experience in transformational “creative class” place-making and neighborhood revitalization. Craig’s partnership with Cohere has lead to some of our most well-known work with clients like Charlie was a sinner, Double Knot and others. We have also supported him in projects like the initial branding for Spring Arts with the area’s first major commercial building 990 Spring Garden Street. This building is now right around the corner from our new location, overlooking the same “pop-up” park where we launched the Cohere brand in 2015! More on that pop-up to come…
“I’ve always envisioned a space where our team could rotate between meetings, design-centric activities, creating floral masterpieces and developing content all in one continuous space,” Antoinette explained.
Antoinette Marie Johnson
We are inviting photographers to do shoots here, chefs and restaurants we are working with to test menus …the list goes on as long as the space provides that energy. With this new move, we’re kicking off the decade by entering a transitional stage of growth. Plans are already in motion to have the creative vision impact the neighborhood with ‘guerilla gardening’ workshops; daily afternoon meditation sessions; farm dinners, design events and more.
Programming begins this week with a sold-out Ladies Wine and Design event
An interactive TYP (Ten Year Plan) session and zero-alcohol Seedlip cocktails. Led by Antoinette Marie Johnson and Erik Oberholtzer as we take you through a fun and easy planning session for an evening of goal setting and wellness to kick off the new decade with a purpose.
Photo by Andre Rucker
The team has already had a few photoshoots in their studios with Andre Rucker, creating a new National campaign for the independent local fast-casual chain HipCityVeg. A great example of Cohere’s sweet spots in motion; female-led, plant-based, cutting edge brands in food + sustainability.
