Mertz Gilmore Foundation Meeting House

The Mertz Gilmore Foundation—known for its civil rights advocacy and cultural philanthropy, including the 1982 founding of the Joyce Theater, named in honor of Joyce Mertz—engaged MBB to design a suite of meeting and collaboration spaces to support its current programs focusing on democracy and dance. After exploring options for relocating to a modern office building, the Foundation decided to renew its five-story Gramercy Park townhouse as a warmly contemporary Meeting House.

Embracing the building’s gracious scale and historic character, MBB created a series of elegant, open work environments focusing on collaborative spaces. Modernized interiors preserve quintessential details of the 1856 townhouse such as the thick, spiral mouldings that frame the soaring rooms of the piano nobile. The loftlike third floor, with its changeable furniture and catering kitchen, hosts a variety of meetings, performances, and grantee events. Opening to the rear patio, the garden level offers conference and office space for grantee partners. A new skylight crowns the restored residential stair.

To create an accessible entrance within the contextually sensitive Stuyvesant Square Historic District, a modern outdoor lift connects the sidewalk to the garden level. The selection of interior finishes and furnishings was informed by sustainable and ethical sourcing guidelines. The Foundation’s art collection is featured throughout the Meeting House.