Work

Jeffrey Loria Gallery
Description

Retain privacy and security, yet craft a sense of openness.

Representing the rarified world of contemporary and modern masters including Roy Lichtenstein and Achille Gorky, this private art dealer’s gallery occupies former physicians offices on the ground floor of a grand 1937 art deco masterpiece on Madison Avenue.

Both discretion and security were primary concerns of the client. Public traffic is screened at the street door and an electrically operated vestibule gate acts both as a security lock and a decompression chamber from the outside world. All exterior windows have been screened with sandblasted glass panels, which serve to shield the dealer and his clients from outside distractions. Two thirds of the space was allocated to the gallery while the remaining area contains private offices, storage and a library. We exploited the existing level change to provide and encourage different types of viewing environments, both intimate and monumental, rendered through the use of a spare material palette including both honed and polished granite, plaster and gypsum.

Photographs © Paul Warchol

Byrd Hoffman Foundation
Description

Balance a foundation budget with a world-renown artist's practical and artistic needs.

These foundation offices serve as the American base for the international opera and stage director, Robert Wilson. Housed on the fourth floor of a Soho warehouse, economy of means and minimal detailing were critical to establishing the identity of the office/archive.

Reception and meetings occur near the front entry, which also has a large open display area. Circulation runs around the perimeter of the remaining open-office environment, allowing the entire staff to share light from the eastern window wall. Interior partitions were made of sandblasted glass and created private workstations without limiting the natural light transmission. Located at the south and western edges of the space, the archive and library were designed accommodate expansion for the ever-growing collection of Robert Wilson artifacts. To economize, we utilized existing ceiling light-fixture trays which were rotated upward and reorganized in a new pattern. The lighting choice, coupled with specifying low pile industrial carpet to conceal the patched wood floors, helped to keep the budget for a 2,500SF office reasonable for a non-profit institution.

Photographs © Paul Warchol

Badgley Mischka
Description

Manifesting Hollywood Glamour

Mark Badgley and James Mischka have been dressing Hollywood’s leading ladies for the red carpet for over twenty years. Hailed by Vogue magazine as one of the “Top 10 American Designers,” Badgley Mischka’s style draws from the glamour of Hollywood in the 1940’s with clean and elegant lines infused with incredible richness. Their gowns are beautifully detailed and constructed with the finest materials to designs that are timeless and modern. Mark Badgley and James Mischka hired us to do the same for their showroom.

Referencing many significant Deco and Moderne interiors of the era, we put together a sumptuous palette featuring macassar ebony, silk, glass, marble and cork that reflect the rich material luxury of the time. We detailed the materials in ways that were modern and unexpected. Walls of macassar ebony and upholstered silk envelop the space. Illuminated silk fringe screens cascade from the ceiling and pool on the floors. Sandblasted mirror columns reflect light around the space. Custom glass doors slide away to open the showroom for intimate runway shows. The essence of the time is captured and reinterpreted in a modern way, providing the luxurious setting that compliment the collections on display.

Photographs © Josh Homer

Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl
Description

Utilize subtle sculptural elements to enliven an art exhibition space.

This contemporary art gallery is the New York City outpost of one of the pre-eminent artist workshops in the world. A mixture of floating and full-height partitions provide the flexibility for both large and small scale installations.

The sculptural wall that greets visitors derived its shape from immovable building systems concealed behind. Staff desks appear extruded from the wall to give dimension. This administrative core then provides not only all the functional needs of the gallery but also animates the otherwise intentionally spare milieu.

Photographs © Chris Santa Maria . Josh Homer .

Clifty Creek School
Description

Maintain the integrity of a Richard Meier design while adding significant additions.

Meier's Clifty Creek Elementary School is one of Columbus, Indiana's iconic schools designed by distinguished architects. With the growth of Columbus, the beloved school needed more classrooms, support amenities, and updated building compliance.

The task required delicacy - respect the original design, add the necessary elements, and infuse new vitality. To start, we extended the primary axis of the school in both directions. Mirroring Meier's setback between the classrooms and library, a service link was inserted to keep the addition from appearing too massive. Meier's exterior curved walls were also replicated at the new termination points. While adding the ADA-required elevator and corridors to the courtyard, we replaced the existing walls with glass and a brise-soliel thus allowing the heart of the school, the library and the new bridge/elevator system to be connected with nature. The colors used in the courtyard further promoted the correlation. In a new twist, floor color-coding was added throughout the school and gave identity to individual floors that were previously indistinguishable.

Photographs © Paul Warchol

Sotheby's Rudolf Bauer
Description

Create an installation for an under-appreciated artist worthy of the artist's history and vitality.

When Sotheby's commissioned us to design an installation of Rudolf Bauer paintings we looked to architect Frederick Kiesler's 1942 Art of This Century gallery, a precursor to the Guggenheim Museum. In the 1920-30's Bauer was considered more significant than his friends Kandinsky and Klee, and became the core of Solomon Guggenheim's collection. Bauer's fall to obscurity is the stuff of soap operas. Guggenheim, a copper baron, had been introduced to abstract art by his lover, Baroness Hilla von Rebay. Bauer was working in Germany and in 1938 was incarcerated for creating degenerate art. With cash given her by Guggenheim, Rebay secured Bauer's release from the Nazi prison camp and brought him to the U.S.A. (It was Bauer who said that the viewing of paintings in Guggenheim's proposed museum should not be interrupted by stairs, but should be on a continuous ramp.) Eventually Guggenheim realized that Bauer and Rebay were also lovers. Thus began a feud that led to the removal of Bauer's work from the new Guggenheim Museum.

Our installation design echos Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum rotunda. The design's simple but dramatic moves, and our strategic use of color, endeavor to highlight Bauer's great influence and reinstate him as one of the Abstract Movement's pivotal artists.

Photographs © Paul Warchol

Groupe JS Showroom
Description

Groupe JS asked us to create a New York City showroom that is as fresh and energetic as the modern clothing they produce. While drawn to our use of bold color, they were concerned that an overly colorful showroom might distract buyers from the vibrancy of their clothing lines. We faced this challenge by being judicious in palette and placement but not devoid of color or whimsy.

To take advantage of the showroom’s abundance of natural light, we created seven open meeting areas along two sides of the windowed-perimeter with a “Living Room” as the fulcrum. The meeting spaces are separated by cast resin panels suspended from the ceiling for privacy. The panels are covered in a dichroic film allowing the surfaces to be iridescent with colors that shift throughout the day.

The “Living Room” is a place where buyers can relax between sessions. In contrast to the white walls, bold accent colors were used: a deep purple Masland rug, our own Salsa sofa in maple with orange velvet cushions and Harry Bertoia lounge chairs with violet cotton covers bring additional warmth.

The ebullience of the “Living Room” was later recreated in miniature as a portable trade-show booth for Groupe JS to present their clothing lines around the country.

Photographs © Paul Warchol