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Illustration by Vaclav Malek, Photographs by Matt Hughes
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Dilapidated. Dumpy. Another No-Tell Motel.
These are some of the nicer words used to describe the 20-unit cinder-block apartment building in Webster Groves known as the Garden Apartments. Considering it was built in 1960 to house students of Webster College (now Webster University), its present state wasn’t exactly surprising. Embarrassing? Yes. Since 1995, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis has been using the apartments to bunk its itinerant actors. It was those actors who nicknamed it the Bates Motel.
“This place was legendary, and not in a good way,” says Scott Schafer, a New York–based actor who recently wrapped You Can’t Take It With You, his fifth career performance at The Rep. “There was one stay where I completely lost my voice because the carpet was so dusty. I’m pretty sure there was cat dander.”
Overhauling the Garden Apartments has been a central focus for Deborah Sharn since she was hired as The Rep’s company manager three years ago. “But this is the arts,” Ms. Sharn says. “So money is tight.”
Using funds raised by the theater’s Backers Volunteers Board, she was able to do some minor redecorating: painting each unit and replacing the carpet, towels, bedding, and some furniture. But she could only go so far. “I’m not a professional decorator, and there wasn’t enough money to cover the kitchens and baths,” she explains.
Enter AT HOME, which to that point had taken on three community projects and decided to make the Garden Apartments No. 4. Many magazines do show houses, but AT HOME wanted to do something that would benefit the city long-term.
Due to the efforts of volunteers and donors, the apartment building now comprises five units that perform to The Rep’s standards; some of them might well be ranked four-star. Among many, many generous donations were kitchen and bath fixtures by Kohler, appliances from AUTCOhome, granite countertops from Architectural Stone, tile from Global Granite & Marble, vanity tops from Hallmark Stone, flooring from ProSource, and cabinetry from Beck/Allen Cabinetry, F. G. Lancia, and Archway Cabinetry & Design.
“I perform nationwide and have not stayed in an apartment this nice,” Mr. Schafer says of the current incarnation. “The first thing I did when I walked in the door was take pictures to email to my family.”
With luck, the building’s other 15 units will also be made over in the not-too-distant future. “This project is already causing buzz on the actor network,” Ms. Sharn says. “And once it’s finished, it will be some of the nicest actor housing out there.”
The Kindness of Strangers
New Yorkers like Scott Schafer will feel right at home in the clean, contemporary apartment created by interior designers Emily Castle, ASID, of Castle Design, and Dana Romeis of Fibercations. “I used to sort of dread coming here, honestly,” says Mr. Schafer, sitting at the chrome-legged, tempered-glass table in the dining room. “Now I can’t wait to come back!”
The modern aesthetic was a conscious choice on the part of the designers. “We were told from the beginning that many of the actors who stay here are young, male, and urban,” Ms. Romeis says. “So we went for clean, bright, and fun.”
Whether they’re from New York or New Mexico, all of The Rep’s visiting actors will be inspired by Apartment H1’s homage to A Streetcar Named Desire, the play by Tennessee Williams. “As a piece of theater, I can’t think of anything more iconic or recognizable,” Ms. Romeis says. The play’s atmosphere is a poignant contrast to the apartment’s sleek, modern environment. Heroine Blanche DuBois’ famous words appear twice here, once on the wall of the dining room (“I don’t want realism. I want magic. Yes, yes, magic”) and once on the wall of the bedroom (“…I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”). On the dining-room wall, Marlon Brando’s iconic Stanley Kowalski commands attention in a framed, embellished photograph from Locus Gallery.
If Blanche and Stanley don’t get the creative juices flowing, the color scheme will. Warm gray walls (Sherwin Williams’ Alpaca), black accents, and white accessories suggest a black-and-white film. A gray-and-black botanical-print Larsen wallpaper covers one accent wall in the living room, and gray fabric bins line a bookshelf for a sort of sophisticated locker look. “We labeled the boxes ‘Scripts,’” says Ms. Castle, “as if the actors would be stashing loads of offerings.”
The Iceman Cometh
“Working with small spaces is always a great test of creativity,” says interior designer Zachary Cramberg, Allied Member ASID, of Brick and Bramble Home and Garden. To open up the floor plan of Apartment D1, Mr. Cramberg and teammate Jenny Manganaro, Interior Design Consultants, focused on lighting and streamlined with furnishings that could serve dual purposes. Their bright ideas included:
1) Giving the kitchen’s back door a French-door treatment. The tiny alley kitchen was the darkest space in the apartment. Now the room gets a swath of sunlight—and a view of neighboring tennis courts.
2) Recessing five spotlights in the kitchen ceiling.
3) Mounting a swing-arm lamp in the bedroom where a bedside lamp would normally go. The artisan shade is a flattened glass bottle, hand-blown in amethyst and emerald.
4) Laying commercial-grade, vinyl plank linoleum flooring, donated by Corporate Flooring Group, at a 45-degree angle to create the illusion of even more space.
5) Replacing harsh fluorescent lights in the bedroom closet with a soft-
glowing light cable that nestles invisibly at the top. “It’s a $10 cord,” says lighting designer Rick Brazzale. “But the difference is amazing.”
6) Ripping out the tub and replacing it with a walk-in shower tiled in honed limestone. “We’re the only unit with a totally walk-in shower,”
Mr. Cramberg says.
The adjustments opened up the space and dictated a sparse, clean look for the rest of the apartment. “We tried to keep things straightforward and uncluttered,” Ms. Manganaro says. “We wanted it to be durable, practical, and easy to maintain.”
One of the furnishings that made the cut was a black leather sofa with three massive concrete blocks as its base. “We pulled it from the Little Shop Around the Corner, but it originally came from the Missouri Botanical Garden,” Mr. Cramberg says. “The entire thing weighs over 600 pounds.”
Private Lives
Interior designer Tim Rohan of T. Rohan Inc. took one look at Apartment E2 and declared it way beyond mere painting or redecorating; this would require a major renovation. “We ripped out four layers of flooring, each one with its own layer of concrete,” Mr. Rohan says. “We plastered and replastered the walls; we moved the air and heating vent; we built a new wall…”
What was left when the dust settled was a four-star, state-of-the-art suite that bore absolutely no resemblance to its predecessor. Antiques and meticulous upholstery take the space to a new level of luxury and class.
Mr. Rohan’s most clever maneuvers are displayed in the entry. “There actually was no entryway to speak of,” he says. “So we faked a foyer by building an angled wall to one side of the door.” On the other side, Mr. Rohan placed a demilune marble-topped table “to place your keys on when you walk in.”
On the back of the new wall, which faces the living room, Mr. Rohan constructed angled, built-in shelves to stow a TV and an iPod dock. “This is a retreat now, acoustically pleasing and pampering,” he says.
The bedrooms of the Garden Apartments share one significant detail: a band of clerestory windows that draw in neither view nor light. Mr. Rohan’s answer to the architectural challenge was to conceal them in drapery. “There was no value whatsoever to the windows, so we covered them,” Mr. Rohan says. The look is at once simple, with its raw ivory silk fabric, and dramatic, in its ceiling-level height. That quiet drama is repeated in Mr. Rohan’s headboard treatment, two 19th-century pine pocket doors mounted side-by-side. A pair of Regency lamps with fluted shades punctuates the scene while staying in line with the overall palette of khaki, cocoa, and apple-green.
The Grass Harp
Community projects such as the Garden Apartments wouldn’t exist without the thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts donated by St. Louis businesses and individuals. How fitting, then, that each room in Apartment C2 was inspired by a single donated furnishing.
In the living room, a tufted salmon tweed sofa and a pair of brown tweed slipper chairs kicked things off. Denise Fogarty, Allied Member ASID, Denise Fogarty Interiors, brought in the pieces, which were donated by one of her clients. They called for an eclectic, somewhat masculine supporting cast. Ms. Fogarty and Marcia Moore of Marcia Moore Design filled the remaining spots in the room with a brown-and-salmon area rug, a TV console repainted in a mustard brown, and a dressy chandelier hung in the corner of the room.
In the bedroom, a zebra-print upholstered bench (donated by the same client) and Ms. Fogarty’s own leftover green-and-white wallpaper set the tone. “The wallpaper’s pattern is sort of imperfect,” says Ms. Moore. “It gives more of an illusion of a pattern than the real thing. It reminded us of a set design in that way.”
And so, the notion of stage sets—and all of the fantasy that implies—became the theme for the bedroom. The wallpaper runs halfway down the wall, at which point decorative painter Cynthia Danielle painted a faux chair rail and panel molding. Ms. Danielle’s handiwork is also on display in a faux headboard and faux pull cords running alongside real-life bedside chandeliers. A pair of IKEA mirrored nightstands provide a solid touch of magic.
“We wanted this to be homey, but at the same time include some fun touches that you would never have at home,” says Ms. Moore. “Actors are fun people, after all.”
The Golden Age
Interior designer Holly Blumeyer has done her fair share of show houses, but never has she been party to such a dramatic before-and-after. “There were awkward vertical blinds, ugly furniture, shabby carpet. Everything was either broken or old,” she says of her first impressions of Apartment J1.
Fellow designer Barb Donohue’s first impressions reach back to the 1960s, when the complex was built. “I went to Webster College and had a classmate who lived here,” she says. “It was dreary then, too, but I think it was the only off-campus housing, so it was also cool.”
A pair of oil paintings started the makeover rolling. The framed works, which depicted traditional English hunting scenes, were donated by a friend of Ms. Blumeyer’s. When she discovered two more just like them in the building’s storage unit, the tone was set. “These actors are staying here for as long as two months sometimes,” Ms. Blumeyer says. “So our theme was to make this a home away from home. Just like the paintings, we wanted it to be very cozy, warm, and welcoming.”
Their inspiration established, the Holly Blumeyer Interior Deisgn team went to work. To match the muskets and horses, they brought in a leather sofa, an antique drop-leaf dining table, and a chunky bed with an oak-stained custom headboard. The paintings’ blue skies come through in the carpet; its hunters’ red coats, in rouge velvet drapes, swivel chairs reupholstered in rose chenille, and a twin set of posters from a Rep production of Romeo and Juliet.
It’s country; it’s clubby; it’s conservative. But most of all, it’s comfortable. “This was an act of love on my part,” Ms. Blumeyer says. “I truly care about our city, and The Repertory Theatre is a significant part of the cultural scene here.”
A heartfelt thanks to each and every one of our donors.
The Donors:
Accord Electric
Arch Framing & Design
Architectural Stone
Archway Cabinetry & Design
Frank Ashmore
AUTCOhome
Barco Construction
Beck/Allen Cabinetry
Born Electric
Bryan Boyer
Lynn and Lary Bozzay
Brandan Painting
Rick Brazzale Lighting
Peter Bunce
Calico Corners
Carpet One
Meg Clarke
Class Act Designs
Esther Cornelius
Corporate Flooring Group
County Glass & Mirror
Crate & Barrel
Crescent Plumbing Supply
Daltile
Cynthia Danielle
Designer Blinds
Designtex
DiPrimo Fabricators
Duralee
Engraphix
Ferguson Enterprises
F.G. Lancia Custom Woodworking
Flooring Systems
Andy Frost
Christopher Gaffney
Nancy and Paul Gilbride
Global Granite & Marble
Constance Goss
Grafica Fine Art Gallery
Guardian Protection Services
Hallmark Stone Company
Melissa Haupt
Tim Henson
Hilson
Godfrey Hirst Carpets
Homefix
HomeSource Wholesale Design Center
Laure Hullverson
Michael Isaacson
John Fletcher Design
Karr Bick Kitchen + Bath
KDR Designer Showrooms
Rosemarie Kern
Kirkwood Glass
Kirkwood Home
Kitchen & Bath Design
Kohler
Rick Lages, Rick L. Fix-It
J. LaMartina Plumbing
Landmark Builders
Lawler Custom Exteriors
Lynn LaVelle
Laura’s Pillows ’N Stuff
Little Shop Around the Corner
Locks & Pulls Design Elements
Locus Gallery
Susan Maurer
McGuire Moving & Storage
Metro Electric
Metro Lighting
Tori Michaels
Dennis Moore
Tina and Gerald Mozur
Geri Newell
Niche Home Furnishings
Ortmann Concrete
Overy & Sutton Painting
Tom Phillips
Phillips Furniture
Pieper’s Unfurnished Furniture
Porter Paints
Jason Prinzi Flooring
ProSource
Rainbow Painting Company
P.S. Rapp Plumbing
R & F Tile & Marble Company
Reineke Decorating Center
Rice Painting
Freda and Harry Rich
Cathie and David Robertson
Rockwood Floors
Rug Decor
Anne and Neil Ryan
Second Sitting Consignments
Sew Soft Draperies
William Sheffield
Sherwood’s Forest Nursery
Jennifer Siebert
Drs. Joan and Sherman Silber
The Sound Room
St. Charles Hardwoods
Stone Fabricators
Sugar Creek Gardens
Summit Electric
Sunderland Brothers Company
Liz and Ken Teasdale
Thermal Mechanics
Tucker Paperhanging Company
Victor Shade Company
Angela Vitale
Vitality Unlimited Spa
Volume Carpets
Kent Ward
Westport Painting
Barb and Andy Whittle
Nancy Williams
W. King Ambler
Zipf-Air
Additional sincere thanks:
Kathy Curotto, Melissa Haupt, Cindy Pifke, and Bren Souers for their tireless solicitation for donations.
