While touring Philadelphia’s historic Bellevue Hotel, restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow spotted an old Edison Electric logo, a detail that sent him down a research path revealing Thomas Edison had not only electrified the entire hotel but designed some of its original lobby fixtures. For Chodorow, whose restaurants have always treated lighting as a core design element, that discovery became the building block for Mr. Edison, a modern reimagining of a 1940s supper club now open inside the landmark hotel.
To translate that history into physical space, Spanish firm Clavel Arquitectos, led by architect Manuel Clavel, adapted Edison’s legacy into a 150-seat room where lighting is at the center of it all. “You do the lighting in abundance so that its importance is noticeable,” Chodorow says. Additional unique elements include a 12-foot Ferris wheel suspended over the bar, which was Chodorow’s idea. “I love the London Eye, and I like the idea of doing something unexpected in design that becomes a ‘wow’ moment.” Some subtler choices, like the lower “Cipriani height” seating downstairs, shifts the room’s mood into something more intimate.
