DesignPhiladelphia

BOK is owned and operated by Scout, a multi-disciplinary design and development firm with a background in transforming vacant and underutilized spaces in creative ways. In 2014, Scout submitted a proposal to reuse the existing infrastructure within the building to create affordable work space for a wide variety of different users. The approach matches tenants with spaces that can accommodate their needs, while offering amenity and economic opportunity to the neighborhood. It is a phased long-term construction project that seeks to continually improve and repair the building. Scout’s light-touch approach to renovation seeks to respect and repair the building’s found condition and reuse as much as possible. In the rear of the building, the old tool library has been transformed into a coffee shop. The former Le Bok Fin culinary training kitchen provides infrastructure for a local catering company. Wood-shop classrooms with high electrical capacity have been utilized by tenants in need of extra power. Bok’s first three tenants were a haberdasher, a textile designer and a jewelry designer; all three lived in the neighborhood and had outgrown their rowhome work spaces. Today the 340,000 square foot structure houses close to 150 businesses, artists, makers, entrepreneurs, and non-profits — ranging from fashion designers to filmmakers to glassblowers to architect practices to woodworkers, and even a wholesale bakery. Bok is also home to a daycare, a hair salon, ESL classes, a tattoo parlor, a coffee shop, a butcher shop, a kombucha producer and an award-winning rooftop bar. Open Studios is a chance to come peek inside the building, catch up with tenants about what new and exciting things they've been up to, and learn more about the progress made in the redevelopment of Bok. Featuring artists and photographers, wood workers and glass blowers, a hair salon, a bike shop, and more! This event is FREE + Family friendly.