Barbara Eberlein Honored at the Annual Friends of Rittenhouse Square Gala

On June 18, 2026, the annual Friends of Rittenhouse Square gala honored interior designer Barbara Eberlein, ASID. Her firm, Eberlein Design Consultants, is an award-winning Philadelphia-based interior design firm specializing in historic preservation.

Eberlein lives in Philadelphia's historic Rittenhouse Square neighborhood where she has renovated/restored two significant townhouses.

Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia is the fourth-oldest park in the US, planned in 1682. The square is and has always been public, full of lush landscaping and benches for all to enjoy—not just the folks who live bordering the park.

The Rittenhouse Square neighborhood's status as a highly desirable residential area was cemented throughout the Gilded Age when some of America's wealthiest families kept homes there. In the mid-20th century many of the Victorian mansions around the park gave way to high rises and condominiums, though some historic Art Deco and Italianate buildings remain.

The Rittenhouse Square Improvement Association was established in the early 20th century and is responsible for the current design of the square—a public urban park with classical sensibilities that serves a modern, diverse public.

The Friends of Rittenhouse Square was established in 1976 and continues the improvement association's work. The nonprofit oversees the park's maintenance and its place as one of Philadelphia's most important public spaces.

The Friends of Rittenhouse's annual Ball on the Square gala was on June 18 this year. The sold-out evening celebrated the nonprofit's 50th anniversary, and took place in Rittenhouse Square itself, transformed into an open-air ballroom.

A member of the Friends of Rittenhouse Square board of directors since 1998, Barbara Eberlein has helped preserve and restore historically significant buildings in the area for decades. One of her most impressive projects is her own home, a five-story Rittenhouse Square townhouse built in 1856 that she meticulously restored and furnished with antique furniture. She has also served as chair of the Friends of Rittenhouse's Ball on the Square in the past, and she won the 2024 Clem Labine award.

The historic buildings that Eberlein's firm has restored include the Philadelphia Art Alliance on Rittenhouse Square, designed by Charles Klauder in 1906; Drexel University's Alumni Center in an 1876 Frank Furness building; and Ardrossan, a 1912 Georgian home in Villanova, PA, by Horace Trumbauer. She restores historic residential buildings in Philadelphia and beyond, focusing on authentic, period-accurate interior design that feels lived in and that works for a modern lifestyle.

“We shape the natural world around us, and it most certainly shapes—and nourishes—us,” said Eberlein in her remarks at the 2026 Ball on the Square.