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The sofa is from U-fab Interiors. The pillows are from The Shop by Flourish Spaces. The mercury glass table lamp is vintage 1960s. The artwork includes an original Barack Obama “Hope” poster by Shepard Fairey.
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The 1960s bar cabinet is German, the vintage mirror once belong to Sparks’ grandmother, and the vintage glassware is from Vintage Glass & Pottery. The chair is by Norman Cherner for Plycraft.
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Michael Sparks, Richard Brown and their dog, August, who was named after the poet August Wilson
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The kitchen is outfitted with a Bosch appliance suite. The concrete column is original to the space and the old Maxwell House Coffee warehouse. August’s bowls sit on a Moroccan throw rug from Flourish Spaces.
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A contemporary Charles Eames shell chair at the head of the table in the loft faces a painting by Richmond artist Bill Fisher. The photograph is by Jennifer Sisks.
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“We could have gone out and bought very expensive tile like a lot of people do, but we ended up going to Floor & Decor and finding something we loved, keeping it simple while working with Ferguson on their top-of-the-line bathroom fixtures,” Sparks says.
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The Sputnik chandelier is vintage 1960s, the photographs are by Richmond photographer Joseph Johnson, the Moroccan pillows are from Flourish Spaces, and the 19th-century carved chest is from Indonesia.
In 2022, after more than a decade living in the Museum District, Micheal Sparks and Richard Brown were looking to return to the simplicity of living in a condo. They explored a variety of neighborhoods before settling in Manchester — in part because of the history visible outside their windows.
“The slave trails … are right there,” Sparks says. “We thought it was important to have our home set on such hallowed ground.”
The new condo was previously a rental apartment. To transform it into their home, they called on their friend Joe Yates of Joseph F. Yates Architects.
Yates’ firm completed the original redevelopment of the building in 2002, converting the former Maxwell House Coffee warehouse into a mixed-use building with three commercial offices and 14 apartments. The project was one of the first historic conversions in Manchester.
“Adaptive reuse was in its early stages,” Yates says. “There was a movement around the country to take these older industrial buildings and create apartments.”
The former warehouse was constructed with reinforced concrete, and the interior was raw and unfinished. Yates says they retained that industrial feel by keeping the large windows, exposed concrete floors, and brick and plaster walls. The loft-style apartments featured a kitchen and bathroom core, surrounded by an open, flexible space that could be further divided with temporary walls and partitions.
When Sparks and Brown brought Yates back nearly 20 years later, they wanted to carve out more private spaces and incorporate upscale features without losing the industrial atmosphere. A new wall created a private bedroom, while French doors keep the space from feeling closed off and allow light to shine through. After replacing the windows, Yates used one of the original panels to wall off an office and a mudroom.
For Sparks, retaining the exposed concrete, brick and plaster was an important reminder of the building’s past.
“We wanted to keep it rough in remembrance of who may have built these buildings,” he says.
Sparks and Brown see their home as an homage to their personal histories and the history of Richmond. The walls are filled with paintings from Richmond artists including Ron Johnson, Bill Fisher, Adele Cohen and Jennifer Sisks. On a custom bookshelf built by Goochland woodworker Jason Watts, they display objects from their lives and travels, such as a 17th-century Indonesian fertility necklace and a model of the plane Brown’s father used to fly. Hanging above the kitchen island is a pair of light fixtures believed to be from a G.C. Murphy five-and-dime store.
“I bought them at an auction house in Raleigh and held onto them for two years,” Sparks says. “I was told they hung over the lunch counter in the 1960s when Black people weren’t allowed to sit there. Now a Black man eats at the counter under them, in the house that I own.”
Another key feature of the home is the short commute to work: Brown is a cancer researcher the at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center downtown, and Sparks’ office is located just steps away in Manchester.
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The event space at Underground Kitchen is furnished with Sparks’ collection of refurbished midcentury furniture. Overhead, magnolia branches and wicker planters hang suspended from panels made from planks taken from the original elevator in the building. “The magnolia pays homage to our ancestors,” Sparks says.
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The cabinet in the Underground Kitchen sitting area is a hybrid — the carved front piece is from an ancient Indonesian Buddhist temple backed by new teak wood. The chair and ottoman (not shown) are from Reynolds Metals’ midcentury headquarters building in Henrico.
Sparks has worked in fashion, interior design and branding, and he owns Micheal Sparks Design. He is also the founder and CEO of The Underground Kitchen, an experiential dining company that blends history and food and provides a platform for emerging chefs of color, women and those in the LGBTQ+ community. He operates both out of another converted warehouse.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Sparks had to rethink both business models. His UGK business partner pointed out that the space housing his design studio and collection of midcentury furniture in the old Cauthorne Paper Factory office building might offer a safe place to gather while UGK’s traveling pop-up events were on hiatus.
Sparks reconfigured the space with a small wine and gourmet food shop up front and a large dining table and seating area for pop-up events. During the pandemic, UGK launched a nonprofit arm, UGK Community First, that supports food-insecure children, families and older adults and provides employment for restaurant workers. Sparks added a small kitchen to the event space where UGK-CF hosts virtual cooking classes and nutrition education.
As with his home, Sparks looked to keep some of the original features as a reminder of the building’s history, such as the exposed brick and open ceilings. Sparks also brought Watts, the woodworker, in to refurbish wood panels from an old elevator and create a series of decorative ceiling fixtures. The space is furnished with refurbished sideboards, vintage midcentury modern couches, and a teak bookshelf from a Buddhist temple in Indonesia.
Sparks says living and working in refurbished spaces at the center of the communities he serves through UGK has created a natural flow of ideas and a deep sense of connection to the history of Richmond.
“A conversation might start at our home, over good food and good wine,” he says. “Then we can come downstairs to the studio [to meet with partners] over more good food and wine and figure out how to support the community with from-scratch meals, all while surrounded by the artists that we support and the people that we employ.”
