Brooklyn's Progress
February/March 2008

BY JILL D’AMICO

MADE LLC is the aptly named architectural firm headed up by Ben Bischoff, Oliver Freundlich, and Brian Papa with the simple ethos of integrating the entire building process. They have combined a design studio, a fabrication workshop, and a contracting team under one roof to create spaces they say are intelligently designed and ultimately refreshing in sensibility and aesthetic.

“We really boil it down in handling all those things,” said Mr. Bischoff. “Clients only need to talk to one person while we handle all the coordination.”

“For clients, renovating is a challenging endeavor – it involves and sometimes disrupts all facets of your life,” he explained. “We like to believe there is a sort of increased pragmatism to our designs. We are showing clients things we know we can pull off - not that we are limiting ourselves, but if we explore something, it means that we can translate that into reality.”

MADE is located in a Beard Street Civil War-era warehouse in Red Hook. Mr. Bischoff said that being based in Brooklyn provides a refuge in a lot of ways.

“I think it helps cleanse our mind to be out here in Brooklyn,” he said. “It’s refreshing and relaxing to be here with an open, unique space and history. Having that unique environment helps up to be more creative - and a little bit more refreshed, relaxed and inspired.”

Thanks to Brooklyn’s building boom and people moving from Manhattan and beyond, there has seen a surge in projects in MADE’s own backyard.

“Over the past two years we’ve found a lot more work in Brooklyn,” said Mr. Bischoff. “Six years ago when we first started, most of our business was in Manhattan. We are getting a lot of work in Fort Greene, which has a very interesting existing housing stock.”

Townhouses are a specialty, but MADE does not only do residential projects. They took home a Building Brooklyn Award last year for their work on One Girl Cookies’ retail shop in Boerum Hill.

Mr. Bischoff told how New York City offers his firm a challenge almost every time they start a project, thanks to its mostly older building stock, much of which they find the firm taking existing space and outfitting them for new uses and lifestyles, which also goes for commercial space.

“We’re called in for taking an old office building and making it into a store, for example,” said Mr. Bischoff. “It’s always fun to re-imagine new life for these types of buildings.”

Chamber Help
MADE came to the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce through their close work with the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation, which is active in Red Hook’s manufacturing industry.

Mr. Bischoff said MADE has particuraly availed itself of the workforce and training services that the Chamber provides, such as Good Help, the Chamber’s free, business-driven staffing service.

“We work closely with Jeanette [Nigro] and Mike [Rosenthal] with our training and retention,” said Mr. Bischoff. “They have really helped us grow.”

MADE was recently awarded on-the-job training grants that has helped to bring in new employees and expand their skills.

“Because we offer such a unique service for clients, the skills that are required from our staff are unique as well, and we have to do a lot of in-house training. The Chamber has been instrumental in providing time and help for that.”

MADE also had a table at the January Business After Hours/Real Estate and Development Nite Brooklyn Architecture Exchange event that recently took place at Pratt Institute.

“Those events have been a great way for us to get out and meet people in the industry and we can show off what we can offer and the type of services,” said Mr. Bischoff.

For more information, contact MADE at 718-834-0171 or visit www.made-nyc.com.