Combining architecture and art to create spaces that inspire people is the specialty of Schickel Design Company in Over-the-Rhine.

Martha Schickel Dorff, president of Schickel Design and the third generation in her family to be professionally dedicated to art and architecture, said her company fits a unique niche in the local architecture market by melding together the spiritual and the practical in the spaces it designs.

“I think we’re unique in our ability to connect physical reality with transcendent reality,” she said at her studio office amid colorful mock-ups of many of her company’s projects.

Indeed, many of Schickel’s designs have involved creating a sense of spirituality and inspiration for clients, including hospitals, religious offices, and churches and chapels.

Dorff said she and her team of designers, along with numerous craftsmen and artists she works with, use tools such as color, light and artwork to give the spaces they design pleasing and uplifting environments.

Stained glass, sculpture, bold colors and abundant natural light are many of the characteristics of Schickel’s creations, said Dorff.

Sister Agnes Coveney, OSU, director of mission integration for Good Samaritan Hospital in University Heights, said she hired Schickel to aesthetically improve the look of several large public spaces at the hospital, which included several elevator lobbies and a concourse.

Coveney said she wanted the renovation to include a visible reminder of the religious roots of the hospital and its “healing ministry.”

“In this new public space it was ideal for us to say something about our religious identity,” said Coveney. “Her (Dorff’s) use of Scripture quotations and images and color and light was right on track.”

In addition to the work at Good Samaritan, Dorff said Schickel has designed interior spaces such as new public space at the Diocese of Orlando headquarters in Florida, the Chapel of the Holy Child at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Mercy Chapel at Mercy Health Partners corporate headquarters, Christ the King Church in Westchester, as well as numerous residential and commercial interior projects such as Geneva on the Lake Resort in Geneva, New York, and a new housing development under construction downtown that includes single-family homes and condominiums.

Although Dorff declined to talk about specific sales figures, she said that her firm regularly takes on about half a dozen projects each year, ranging in cost from $25,000 and $400,000.

The downtown housing development is a project that Schickel is spearheading in the Washington Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, said Dorff, to provide well-designed residences in the downtown area to attract more home buyers to the city.

Called City Home, the roughly 24 units combine some of the features Schickel is well-known for, such as natural light, connection to the outdoors and efficient design, she said.

“Urban centers are enjoying new life in many cities,” she said. “We’re interested in being a part of that.

“One trend that is getting attention now is the not-too-big house. The City Home project is that kind of housing, a well-designed not-too-big home,” she said.

Ranging in size from 800 to 2,500 square feet, the carriage house style residences, which should be on the market by spring 2008, will be designed to blend with the area’s architecture and yet offer all the amenities that modern homeowners want, such as garage space, private courtyards, and security, said Dorff.

The ability to design beautiful spaces may be genetically programmed for Dorff, whose father, William Schickel, II founded Schickel Design in 1948 in a renovated barn in Loveland. Dorff’s grandfather, William Schickel I, was an architect in Manhattan who designed more than 150 major buildings there.

In addition, Dorff’s grandfather on her mother’s side of the family was a well-known stained-glass artisan from Germany, Emil Frei, whose studio in St. Louis that bears his name still produces stained glass for large clients across the country and is run by his grandson, Dorff’s cousin.

“It’s kind of interesting that my grandfather used to live in an apartment on top of his studio, and now that’s what I’m doing,” said Dorff.

“History has a way of repeating itself.”

source : news.enquirer.com