About

Green Relish is built on a simple principle: atmosphere affects the output.

The room matters. The light matters. The people in it matter. When those things align, the work tends to follow.

Before the Cameras

The building at 2902 West Armitage spent many years as the home of AAA Metal Finishing, where Al Meijer carefully honed metal parts for regular customers using equipment that included a 23-foot-long lathe. It was a practical industrial building — the kind designed for making things — with a wide open floor held up by bow-truss beams, a structural system that allowed large, uninterrupted spaces without interior columns.

Years later, when demolition was proposed, those same structural bones became the reason the building survived. Preservation advocates recognized that the bow-truss construction and open industrial volume were increasingly rare in Chicago, and the building was ultimately spared and given a second life.

Some people say buildings remember the work they were built to do.

Parchment Studio

The building’s transformation into a creative studio was led by prop stylist Johanna Lowe, who renovated the space in collaboration with Via Architects and Formed Space Construction. As the studio’s sole proprietor, Johanna shaped the building into Parchment Studios — a production environment that balanced practicality with a strong aesthetic sensibility.

The renovation preserved the building’s industrial character while introducing the infrastructure needed for photography and film production. At its center remained the 44-foot-wide shooting floor, with polished concrete underfoot and exposed bow trusses rising 18 feet above. Around that central space grew the rooms that made the studio work: prep areas, client spaces, meeting rooms, and a fully equipped chef’s kitchen designed specifically for food photography and styling work.

The name Parchment reflected Johanna’s eclectic and exquisite taste, creating an environment that felt both refined and welcoming to the photographers, stylists, and production crews who worked here. Because of Johanna’s production experience as a food stylist, the kitchen was designed with ultimate functionality in mind.

You can follow Johanna’s recipe development here:
Johanna Lowe’s Recipes →

Green Relish

The studio now continues under the stewardship of Anna Knott and Nathan Kirkman, artists who believe the best studios are places where creative collaboration happens naturally. Their approach has been simple: keep the character that makes the building special, refine the spaces where it matters, and leave room for the next good idea.

The new name — Green Relish — reflects that spirit: something a little unexpected, a little playful, and best appreciated in the right company. In many ways it’s simply the next chapter of the same story that began when Al Meijer was making things here decades ago — a place where careful work and good ideas still take shape.

Today that might look like commercial productions, editorial photography, brand films, workshops, and the occasional conversation that turns into opportunities to collaborate.

The room adapts easily to whatever the day requires.

The Building

Buildings that spend decades making things tend to develop a certain character.
This one seems to have held on to it.

Most days unfold exactly as expected.
Lights go up. Crews arrive. The work begins.

But the days people remember are the ones when something special gets made.

Make something memorable.

Put some relish on it.