When Zeke’s Coffee in Woodridge, D.C., decided to revamp its outdoor seating this summer, it turned to a neighbor in Woodridge for advice.

Located next door at 2216 Rhode Island Ave., just over the border of Mount Rainier, Bandura Design is an all-woman interior design firm which opened last summer in midst of the pandemic that specializes in commercial spaces such as hotels and shops.

Founder Jennifer Farris said she decided to relocate her five-year-old business to the Route 1 corridor in July of last year after seeing the real-estate developers she works with were putting a lot of resources into the area.

“It also never hurts to find the perfect size office on the same block as coffee, subs and ice cream,” she told the Hyattsville Wire. “I mean – I could literally never leave again and be just fine!”

Farris spends a lot of her time thinking about the “emotional experience” of the visitors at the places she’s designing, whether it’s a hotel or an office.

In recent years, that has meant designing communal spaces that could help co-workers work together more effectively, often by bringing down walls to create more of a “Great Room” effect, or creating longer communal tables that people could use in the common areas of hotels.

During the pandemic, the firm has also taken on some apartment projects, which has meant rethinking how renters may work from home and what to do about the increase in online package delivery for tenants.

“I think most of the trends that I have seen really take off were already happening in many ways, but the pandemic just made them move faster,” she said.

Some of Bandura’s projects include the Hepburn Apartments in the Kalorama neighborhood of D.C., the Fox Chase Apartments in Alexandria, and the Blair District in Silver Spring, The team has also worked on projects as far away as Charlotte, N.C. and Salt Lake City.

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