Wilma

Good Karma Cafe at Wilma

Philadelphia, PA

Twenty-two years after the Wilma Theater opened on the Avenue of the Arts in Philadelphia, the iconic theater wanted a new concept of what a theater lobby should be, and gained a fresh look along the way, inside and out.

To bring life to the unused lobby space for the hours it wasn’t serving the pre-theater crowd, MAI designed a lively and colorful new coffee shop interior for a new outpost of the Good Karma Café. A cozy seating area with a fireplace was created in a back nook, and table and bar seating was positioned along the large lobby windows overlooking Broad Street. A patron-friendly box office was relocated from the vestibule, integrated into the other end of the lobby. The new coffee bar with a small kitchen sustains the daytime crowd and turns into cocktail service at showtime in the evening. The airy space is punctuated by two soaring columns painted by company performer and artist Stephen Richard.