WOODMERE – Telling the Story of Philadelphia’s Art and Artists
Check out Hilary Jay’s newest book, WOODMERE Telling the Story of Philadelphia’s Art and Artists, Krieger +Associates Architects is featured as the local architects working closely with Bard Architects and Woodmere Art Museum.
Sister Karen Dietrch, freshly appointed as councilor overseeing congregational properties, began searching discreetly for a buyer. Some Chestnut Hill neighbors considered pooling funds to purchase the site, but first they wanted to understand the implications of possible development. They hired Chestnut Hill architect Jeff Krieger to review zoning scenarios, only to discover that sale to a developer could come at a tremendous cost – legally the four-acre site could hold up to twenty-three homes. Worse, the house would be lost, and the precious green space at the center of the Wissahickon Watershed – vital to the drinking water of 350,000 Philadelphians – might be imperiled.
Hilary Jay, Pg. 109, 2025
The board also hired Jeff Krieger, of local firm Krieger Architects, who possesses the knowledge of Philadelphia’s building codes and ordinances, the charm and persistence to work with the City, and the sensitivity to safeguard the building’s nineteenth-century character while imbedding twenty-first-century systems for safety, health, and climate control. Juggling all those institutional requirements amounts to Herculean work. Consider, were constructed in asbestos-laden plaster. They were removed for safe remediation, rebuilt using plywood reinforcement to give the strength needed for hanging art, and replastered to maintain the historic character of the building.
Hilary Jay, pg. 113, para. 3, 2025
Working in collaboration with Krieger, Matthew Baird’s design mandate was clear: enhance the house’s historic character while introducing light, flow, and connection to the landscape – all in service of proving the museum with the gallery and study spaces it so badly needed. The result is both elegant and subtle. A glass elevator tower and escape stair at the rear of the house offers full accessibility without disrupting the Victorian interior. The wraparound porch, once enclosed to provide more interior space for the Sisters, has reopened to create gracious outdoor spaces for museum entertaining that captures golden-hour light over the valley.
Para. 5
The building’s lower level – which once had metal doors and interior windows secured with iron bars – had been used for storing family heirlooms, silverware, important papers, and precious gems. Now, aptly named the Vault, these new galleries honor Philadelphia’s storied jewelry and metalsmithing legacy, and feature work from historic firms such as J. E. Caldwell and Bailey, Banks, and Biddle to contemporary artists and collectors like Mary McFadden, Olad Skoogfors, Stanley Lechtzin, Sharon Church, and Theophilus Amor.
Hilary Jay, Pg. 120, 2025
Copyright
This publication was supported by Woodmere’s Board of Trustees
Catalogue design by Barb Barnett and Kelly Edwards, and edited by Gretchen Dykstra, with assistance from Irene Elias.
All artwork photos by Jack Ramsdale Photography, unless otherwise noted.