News | Birdstudio

NEWSLETTER/ FALL 2025

A Behind the Scenes Tour: Making of the Borromini Mural

February 2025…

The Bird Studio crew first toured the site for new Stephen Starr restaurant ‘Borromini’ last winter (as the snow-covered building materials attests to in the following snapshot). We were there to meet with Sarah Starr, Director of Development Procurement, restaurateur Keith McNally, and the crew from Stokes Architecture to discuss our inspiration, vision, and hopes for Rittenhouse Square’s newest culinary jewel.

And, of course, to walk up the brand new 2-story stairwell which was to house a custom Bird Studio mural. We made our way up the brand new stairs and tried to imagine the 4 foot red-and-white-stripe marble wainscotting. Upstairs, perched on overturned buckets and talking between bursts of construction noise, the vision began to take shape.

March 2025….

Over the next several weeks, we met with designer Ian McPheely and the team to present digital design options for this 15- foot tall interior mural. Zack took the initial inspiration images of Pompeii and degraded Roman ruins and ran with it, eventually developing at least 6 different design options/versions for the team.

Each design brought us a little closer to the exact note we were hoping to hit.

Discussions centered around process, such as if the “broken out chunks” of degradation should be actual cuts into the drywall, or if the illusion should be created with faux painting (painting won out in the end, once it was clear how realistic the illusion could be).

A centering narrative behind this project was as a space that could have been uncovered in the process of the renovation, similar to how a lucky homeowner might find vintage tile or beautiful hardwood while redoing a room. Starr restaurants aim to fully transport, to allow each guest to feel like they may have stumbled upon an old Italian villa for the evening.

The stairwell to the quieter 2nd floor is meant to be discovered gradually, from different angles, as the figures come in and out of focus.

It’s a design aesthetic that Zack has long been fascinated with. In fact, when Starr first approached Bird Studio about doing something in the vein of Pompeiian ruins, Zack immediately walked over to the East Falls’ studio bookshelf and pulled out a large tome he had bought years ago, simply called “Pompeii.” A serendipitous moment we took as a good sign!

L-R: Ian McPheely, Stephen Starr, Sarah Starr, Zack Bird, Keith McNally

As the project evolved, we moved away from a literal translation of any one reference, but held onto a vision of a lush garden filled with gods and goddesses. The final design contains images of a centaur and nymph, Andromeda with a garden motif, and portraits of Hercules and Omphale, along with embedded symbols and borders from that era.

April 2025..

Any project of this scale is bound to have its challenges. Many of you may know that we paint our interior mural in our studio on canvas and then transfer them the site. In this case, the size of the mural meant our studio’s “mural wall” was covered from literal edge to edge, but in the end we were just barely able to squeeze it in instead of moving to a large off-site location.

Another challenge became the necessity to invent a finish that was part plaster, part paint - to give the fresco realism that was needed without making a finish that was too heavy to install.

Many times it actually takes more work to create something realistically aged-looking, especially while avoiding the pitfalls of too “perfect” looking damage and wear. The Bird Studio mural contains a base layer of actual plaster, which could then be sanded, scratched, and physically degraded as pigment was added on top. Each section of the mural was built up, knocked back, and reworked over many layers to create that realism.

The colors of the Bird Studio mural are directly inspired by the pigments and style of ancient Roman ruins, such as the vibrant yellow ochre tone that permeates the scene, adding a rich earthy quality. The deep blues of that time was called Egyptian blue and is widely considered the oldest manufactured pigment.

May 2025..

After spending the spring designing, planning, and executing the mural, installation day came before we knew it. Eight-foot tall cardboard carpet rolls were sourced to carefully roll the mural off the wall. This process can be seen on a recent video we posted on Instagram, so go take a look if you’re interested in the mechanics.

With the stairwell being the main thoroughfare for staff to get between floors, we had to get the mural up quickly so as to disrupt operations as little as possible. Scaffolding in a stairwell is always tricky, not to mention the tight corners our crew needed to navigate when laying the canvas onto the wall, but we got it done quickly and felt the space transform immediately.

August 2025...

At long last Borromini was open for business, and the Bird Studio crew gathered during one of the Friends and Family launch dinners to take it all in. The ambiance, the service, not to mention the 100-layer lasagna, were all dialed in to perfection.

It’s at those moments that 6 months of work all pays off, and every minute of effort shows up in the final experience.

Borromini is a big new name in the Philly restaurant scene, and we were deeply gratified to be selected for this project. A huge thank you to the Starr team in shepherding this project from start to finish, in addition to support from the team at Stokes. And shout out to stone and tile fabricator Uriel Tedgi and site manager Nick Manos too. It really takes a village!