DIAMOND DREAM FINE JEWELERS Faina and Edward Shapiro bought a building in Bernardsville, NJ.  Although the location was excellent, on a main street close to the train station, the building itself was a nightmare.  It looked like a barn and was divided into 2 stores, each floor at a different level.  The challenge was to redesign the building to visually mesh with the historic downtown and create a beautiful, functional interior. GRID/3 design team replaced the 2 separate entrances with a central glass doorway and 3 big windows.  We changed the roofline of the building but kept the upper windows, encasing them to increase their visual importance. The interior planning was dictated by a row of structural columns down the center of the store.  A large showcase island with a lowered soffit above makes the columns an asset.  Customers are sure to see all of the merchandise.  At the last minute, the excellent contractor we worked with, RAD Construction Consultants, worked with their flooring contractor to make the floor one level. A nod was given to the environment – we reused all of Diamond Dream’s existing casework; the paint specified is low VOC (volatile organic compounds); Faina had the existing benches reupholstered for the sit-down cases.  Edward is very fussy about his lighting – it is colour corrected MR 16 low voltage lamps and neutral fluorescent.  Half the lighting can be turned off during the day to save energy and lower the heat generated. Townspeople have come into the store specifically to thank the Shapiros for contributing to the downtown value of Bernardsville with their elegant renovated building. Published in JCK magazine		“It feels like home” says Edward. “Faina doesn’t want to go home with me.  She wants to stay in the store.”