Since the 1700s, the Grade 2 listed Broadway House has been a landmark for anyone coming in and out of the City of Hamilton. Sandwiched high up between Crow Lane and Spurling Hill, the former family home of a mariner named Captain Benjamin Wainwright, has been transformed into a stylish state-of-the art office, full of historic character.
The creative brain behind this design feat is CTX interior designer Sarah O’Brien, who had to deal with unusually low ceilings, wonky walls, listed building constraints and the restoration of historical features, all while creating a sophisticated and flexible workspace.
The result is two floors of open, spacious, light and calm interiors, with white walls, contemporary finishes, cedar beams, wooden floors and an original fireplace which seamlessly marry the old with the new.
By moving the main entrance from the southern to the northern side of the building, and by extending out slightly, O’Brien created a dramatic entryway onto a wide staircase which leads seamlessly to the upper and the lower floors and from which you can see almost the entire office space. Glass panelling beneath a wooden handrail enhances the light and open feeling, and a statement glass globe pendant light fixture from Restoration Hardware, along with tall greenery on the ground floor, creates an immediate wow factor.
O’Brien was tasked with creating a residential commercial feel for this family-owned business, while honouring all the original features. The ceilings of both floors, for example, are littered with cedar beams, in their original configuration, which have all been refinished. So as not to compete with the cedar, she selected a light colour, rustic-looking engineered wood floor from Souza’s carpet for the offices which warms up the space, and to make the areas as light as possible, glass instead of concrete walls and solid doors has been used as much as possible. Broadway House being a listed building, larger windows weren’t an option. O’Brien has also managed to find more modern uses for some of the historical features. While an existing fireplace on the lower floor has been cleaned and sealed, a fireplace on the upper floor has been converted into glass-fronted, built-in shelving and storage. It’s original purpose, however, is still honoured in the surrounding architecture.
Elsewhere, left over cedar has been turned into floating shelves, and the original cedar entry door was restored.
To meet the needs of this busy, family-owned business, the newly designed office space also needed to provide room for growth as well as allow for flexibility. A combination of different-sized spaces has, therefore, been created to allow for both individual and shared work configurations, as well as meeting rooms and an open-plan kitchen and living room for entertaining or relaxing. One of the biggest challenges she had to contend with was the low ceilings on the ground floor, where the walls are less than eight feet high. There was no room for any lighting to hang down, so she sourced linear lighting built into the ceiling on shallow tracks throughout the downstairs rooms. Because, says O’Brien, “a lot of white, bare, low ceilings can be a bit boring and stark,” she incorporated wooden slats into the ceiling of the living room area: “We wanted to create a more warming, inviting space and this has acoustical properties in it, so for TV viewing and gathering, we wanted to dampen the sound a bit.”
Designing a home-style kitchen and bathrooms was an essential component to the residential commercial ambiance of Broadway House, and to this end, O’Brien custom-designed a light and airy kitchen with cabinetry by SALT, white porcelain knife-edge countertops from Eminence, shelving for décor, and a simple, but interesting white tile backsplash from Tile Bar. In the bathrooms, the concrete stone-look porcelain floor tile matches the stairs and central hallways and has been used on some of the bathroom walls as well to give them a clean, modern but natural look: “The tiler did not enjoy this job,” says O’Brien. “There were lots of quirky angles and no walls are straight!” Adding that homely feel is white mosaic tile for the shower and eye-catching black marble wall sconces from CB2.
In addition to the type of stylish office furniture you would expect in a modern office, O’Brien has littered the different spaces with comfortable seating and other soft furnishings, including carpet, cushions and greenery, which all complement the wood and stone tones and add to the family home feel. That O’Brien was able to turn a historic building dating back to the 1700s into a contemporary, bold, bright and comfortable space, which balanced residential scale with a corporate environment was, agree our judges, an immense achievement. In particular, they liked how she “integrated the old and the new,” and hope that this “250-year-old building will last another 250 years!”
Contractors & Suppliers
General Contractor – Cabral’s General Contracting Ltd.
Electrical Contractor – MP Electric Ltd.
Engineer – Entech Ltd.
Landscape Contractor – Bermuda Plant Nursery
HVAC – Apex Mechanical Ltd.
Audio Visual Supplier (TV’s) – Sound Decision Ltd.
Plumbing – IEL
Carpet Supplier & Installer – Windward Supplies
Wood Flooring Supplier – Souza’s Carpet
Wood Flooring Installer – Eminence
Millwork – SALT
Glass – Island Glass
Glass Frosting / Vinyl Design – Bermuda Blueprinting
Paint Supplier – Rowe Spurling
Appliances – Bermuda Supply
Windows/Doors – PVC Window & Doors
Shutters – JMS General Contractors
Security System & Cabling – SwitchWorx
IT Infrastructure – ACT
Lighting – CTX Design Group
Desking – Innovative Office Interior
Office Chairs – Furniture Flair
Tile – Pembroke Tile & Stone
Tile Installer – Eminence
Kitchen – SALT
Countertops – Eminence
Cedar Front Door & Stair Handrails – JMS General Contractors
Existing Cedar Refinishing – Cabral’s General Contracting Ltd.
