Barr Expands its Office Space

About two years ago, Barr staff began to outgrow the Foundation’s longtime office space in our historic home, The Pilot House. As recent visitors to our space know, staff have been split among floors while we explored long-term solutions.

We were very fortunate to be able to expand into the fourth floor of the adjoining building at Two Atlantic Avenue. This solution offered enough space to unite our staff on a single floor, as well as the opportunity to think about how our office space could better support the work we carry out with our partners.

When designing the space, we sought to create a warm and welcoming environment for our visitors. We also wanted flexible space, able to accommodate our growing staff (three new colleagues will join us over the next few months) and various partner convenings.

After months of planning, Barr staff moved in last week. The new conference facilities have modular furniture and movable walls, so that we can adjust the space based on the specific needs of our guests. While at The Pilot House, we happily opened up our main convening space as much as possible to our grantees for their meetings and events. We plan to extend that invitation for our new space, as well, after renovations are fully complete by early next year.

We are currently renovating the Pilot House side of the floor, aiming to preserve the historic characteristics of the building that we all love, including its exposed brick, vaulted entryways, and arched windows that inspired the “BF” in our Barr Foundation logo. We are also modernizing the space in the same spirit of openness, flexibility, and hospitality. By early 2017, we expect to occupy the full length of the fourth floor in Two Atlantic and The Pilot House.

As we continue this period of evolution for Barr, within our program areas and internally, we are excited about how our new space can contribute to working in collaboration with our many partners to advance our shared priorities.