Kamens, 28, didn't seek out this project when he entered the real-estate market a few years back. He was all set to buy a penthouse condo but changed gears when he realized, "I wanted a place where I could live and blow glass."
When he first saw the centuries-old three-story building, with its remnants of an old graphics studio downstairs and warren of dingy offices above, he was impressed by its potential. To map out strategy for revamping what would become the living quarters, he reached out to talent in design and construction.
"It was a collaboration," said Kamens, who shares the apartment with his girlfriend, Kim Rollins. He tapped Aaron Brumer, a friend studying for his master's degree in architecture at Harvard, to draw up plans reconfiguring the top two floors and asked Havertown contractor Jim Curry to translate those plans into sound construction.
"This was less about money than challenge and trying something new," said Kamens, recalling how Curry would often bemoan commercial work by saying: "How many dropped ceilings can I put in?"
But there were budget constraints: Kamens had thought in terms of spending $40,000 on the upstairs renovation. According to Brumer's original plans, it would have cost more than three times that to transform the 2,500-square-foot living space. With practical input from Curry, that figure was whittled down to well under $100,000.
Kamens stepped behind the display wall to show off some neat details Brumer had crafted. "Look at this," he said, showing how light from the skylights came down to a bathroom via cuts Brumer made in the wall. Back on the display side of the wall, recessed lighting illuminates those cuts at night.
What was Brumer's thinking?
"I have a sculptural sensibility," he said, explaining that inserting the fluorescent lighting was a move to create depth in the massive display wall.
