Featured Artist: William Kreider

Deep in the heart of downtown Allentown, Pennsylvania, Bill Kreider toils away in a more than 100-year-old silk mill, building furniture and sets for stage, film, and TV. Kreider designs and constructs his pieces from reclaimed wood, I-beams, and other castoffs of our disposable post-industrial society, preferring locally significant materials such as Bethlehem Steel I-beams, pieces salvaged from Hess’s Department Store, and foundry patterns from Bethlehem Foundry & Machine Co. He believes we throw out far too many useful things in the trash and estimates that he has personally saved more than 800 cubic yards of material from landfills.

Kreider’s work graces a number of restaurants and hotels in New York and retail establishments in Philadelphia, New Hope, Pa., and Lambertville, N.J. He has shown his work in a number of galleries and the Philadelphia Furniture Show. Recently, he received Allentown’s 2008 Visual Artist of the Year honor. Home & Planet is Bill's primary retail outlet. Our store has many of his pieces on display and we will work with our customers on any custom creation.

A theater refugee, Kreider worked for 14 years with the Pennsylvania Stage Company as a technical director and production manager. He’s currently a board member of the Theatre Outlet and previously served on the arts panel for Leadership Lehigh Valley and as a member of the Lehigh Valley Arts Council.

Kreider earned his B.A. in history from St. Francis University in 1974. He currently lives in Emmaus, Pa., with his wife, Pam Pepper, a theater professor at Lehigh University.