Tonight, Bernardon hosted their open house to celebrate the recent completion of their renovation in their 44th year of being a company. I spoke with Angel VanBennekom, marketing assistant, about the recent move.
“We moved in at the end of July,” she said. “Being in an urban setting now, we’re right in the center of things. We get new clients, engineers, consultants to work with. And now we have a new interior design with bright colors, and a benching system instead of cubicles to provide more freedom. And everyone is mostly on laptops, so it’s very fluid here.”
Neil Liebman, managing principal, also commented on the recent changes.
“The renovation ave us rejuvenation and a lot more energy among employees,” he said. “Our roots are in Kennett, but we love the walk-ability here and the new office space offers more creativity for the team.”
Matt Rimert was one of the main drivers of the new utilization of their virtual reality system, which not many 
architectural firms currently use.
“You can take a virtual tour of the building,” he said. “We can quickly build 3D models that are so much easier to execute, and to fix if there needs to be a change.”
Diana Gonzalez, marketing coordinator, also commented on how the quality of life at Bernardon has improved morale since moving to West Chester.
“When you leave now, you’re really in the heart of things,” she said. “I love going out now and exploring the town.”
And Art Bernardon talked about how he has enjoyed his transition from business owner to employee, since he had retiring as a shareholder of the firm. And how much he loves gatherings like these.
“These events are fun because you get a lot of personal time,” he said, “and our clients become our friends.”
When I asked Christina Salvitti, one of the interior designers, about the inspiration for their new look, she commented.
“The design does represent what we do,” she said. “We often use a multi-family design for our clients, so why wouldn’t we use it for ourselves? It’s important because you can take a blank space with the clients’ visions and bring it to life.”
