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THE GREAT INDOORS: Chapterhouse designer Rob Cortez
As far as design is concerned, Bella Vista's Chapterhouse Café and Gallery could be the best coffee shop in the city. Surrounded by a modern layout with mid-century inspired tables and chairs, and artfully angled mobiles, you could spend your whole day there - and many people do.
THE GREAT INDOORS: Chapterhouse designer Rob Cortez
Reporter Meg Augustin takes you inside some of Philly's most fab dwellings to showcase our city's unique grasp on design and architecture.
As far as design is concerned, Bella Vista's Chapterhouse Café and Gallery (620 S. Ninth St.) could be the best coffee shop in the city. Surrounded by a modern layout with mid-century inspired tables and chairs, and artfully angled mobiles, you could spend your whole day there — and many people do. The space was designed from top to bottom by local craftsman Rob Cortez, who, with his wife Shannon and brother-in-law, own several buildings on the block that have benefitted from his artistic design aesthetic.
Cortez’s style is inspired by his years in the bespoke bike business and an upbringing around hot-rod cars. Everything he does is influenced by mathematical symmetry, the kind you see in a well-made road bike. You can see it in his reclaimed wood tables and the zillions of fragile and complex mobiles that flood the café. So you can imagine that his own space, the two stories perched above the café, is a showplace within itself. Like other buildings he has worked on, Cortez gutted the space and filled it with intricate tile work, hand-poured concrete counters, welded metal railings, and handmade benches. He created a masterpiece bath from an old dark room and closet. The floors were ripped up and reworked, with the leftovers crafted together to form a glass- and wood-framed door. The upstairs bedroom features open rafters and exposed beams along with newly drafted walls for his five-month-old baby girl’s room. The home is filled with his favorite pieces, which include a reclaimed dining table, two reclaimed benches, his favorite mobiles, a few mid-century pieces and several portrait paintings from Shannon’s artistic grandfather.
The home feels so open and effortless, yet there isn’t a spot that wasn’t thought out and developed by Cortez in great detail. The poured concrete floors feature a complex copper coil design that reminds Cortez of the mathematical golden mean. When you talk to him, you can see how passionate he is about creation, whether it be an entire home or the smallest golden mobile. “What is it they say?,” he asks. “Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Walking through his space, Chapterhouse and seeing all of his intricate creations, it's obvious this man will never "work." Yet, for his lack of the 9 to 5 drudgery, get ready to see the name Cortez beginning to spread outside of Bella Vista. While Isaiah Zagar may have the rule over the neighborhood's exteriors, Cortez may soon be crowned king of the indoors.
(megan.augustin@citypaper.net)
Contact Meg if you have a home, apartment or condo you'd like to see featured in an upcoming post.
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