Inside Look: Dune CEO’s Southampton Home by Sawyer|Berson

Over the past few decades, the New York architecture firm Sawyer|Berson has designed a bevy of houses in the Hamptons. Admired for their stylistic versatility, founding partners Brian Sawyer and John Berson have masterminded everything from stately Colonial Revival residences to bold, contemporary compounds. But never before had the studio worked on a home quite like the one proposed by Richard Shemtov for a wooded single-acre property in Southampton.

Shemtov, the CEO and founder of furniture company Dune, was looking to build a weekend retreat to share with his wife, Dominique, and their three daughters, who range in age from 14 to 26. He envisioned something modestly scaled, modeled after traditional gable-roof barns but in a rigorously pared-down style. Key inspirations were Herzog & de Meuron’s Parrish Art Museum in nearby Water Mill and the Baron House in Sweden by John Pawson.

“It wasn’t our typical commission,” says Sawyer, who has known and worked with Shemtov for years. “It was an exercise in discipline, really, a fun puzzle to work out. We could fit a certain amount of program in the box.” Adds Berson, “As it turned out, that was a deceptively simple idea, to coordinate the plan and section and make the entire composition sing.”

A Southampton Home Three Years in the Making

To create a crisp silhouette, Sawyer and Berson sunk one of the structure’s two main levels entirely below-grade and devised the standing-seam roof, a weathered-gray zinc, so that it is flush with the perimeter edges and has hidden gutters. Expanses of 10-foot-high, black-painted aluminum–framed glass—most of which slide open—line much of the front and rear facades, while the rest of the exterior is clad in a distinctive recycled-glass brick.

The house’s ground floor encompasses an open living/dining area, the kitchen, and four bedrooms. The loftlike basement level—housing several entertaining areas, Shemtov’s home office, a laundry room, a gym, and a kitchenette—is completely column-free, which added significantly to the engineering complexity of the project. The house also expanded a bit as plans developed: A custom-fabricated carport was tacked on and room was carved out below the eaves to create a half level, a cozy attic den that can double as a guest bedroom. “It’s the house we wanted,” Shemtov says. “But we went way over budget and it took nearly three years to build.”

Interiors are by Homeowner Richard Shemtov

A big chunk of that time was devoted to fitting out the 8,000-square-foot interiors. It’s not uncommon for Sawyer|Berson to handle every aspect of a project—architecture, interiors, landscape—as can be seen in the duo’s forthcoming monograph, to be published by Rizzoli this fall in advance of the firm’s 25th anniversary. But in this case Shemtov oversaw the interiors himself, his first time designing a project of this scale. “Every inch of the house was considered and thought out, almost to the point where it was obsessive,” he admits.

A Courtyard Garden by Sawyer|Berson Brightens the Lower Level

The art is mostly things the homeowners have collected over years, works by friends or that have a personal resonance. One new acquisition is the Bernardo Siciliano painting of a restaurant interior that hangs in the dining area. The scene felt distinctly familiar to Shemtov, who learned after he bought it that the artist had based it on Lincoln, a restaurant in Lincoln Center where Dune created a custom banquette.

To bring light down into the lower level, Sawyer|Berson, which oversaw landscaping, created a courtyard garden with a series of amphitheater-style concrete terraces that are arrayed with a profusion of potted plants. “I originally saw it as a kind of hanging garden with things tumbling down,” says Sawyer. “Richard came up with the idea of lining it with pots, which I think is fun and punchy.”

The focal point of the rear grounds is a minimalist swimming pool, surrounded by porcelain-tile coping and a sweep of precisely graded lawn. There’s an outdoor kitchen and a poolside dining pergola, as well as a covered terrace that’s become one of the family’s favorite hangout spots. Shemtov imagines spending weekends and summers here with the girls—and, eventually, their families—for many years to come. “Labor of love is a commonly used term,” he says, “but with this house, it resonates a lot.”

Inside a Southampton Home by Sawyer|Berson 

sawyer|berson: alex taylor wilk

blue sky design: structural engineer

bk kuck construction: general contractor

toulemonde bochart: rug (lounge)

normann copenhagen: small side table

romo: chair fabric (lounge), drapery sheers (living area, dining area), banquette fabric (mudroom), bench fabric, window-treatment fabric (guest bedroom), settee fabric (main bedroom)

anna karlin: pendant fixture (dining area)

élitis: chair fabric

crosby street studios: rugs (dining area, guest bedroom)

schmitt design: chandelier (living area)

pollack: sectional fabric

kerry joyce: chair fabric

through jeff lincoln art & design: cocktail table, side tables

Ortal: fireplace

foro marble: fireplace stone

stone source: floor tile (mudroom)

renson: custom carport, custom pergola (exterior)

damien hirst: wallpaper (bedroom)

art + loom: rug

Knoll Textiles: wall fabric

robert allen: headboard fabric

brinklicht: pendant fix­tures (kitchen)

corian: countertops

piet boon: stools

wolf: oven

California Faucets: sink fittings

through lee jofa: drapery fabric (main bedroom)

c & c milano: bed fabric

céline wright: pendant fixture

beadlight: sconces

jab: chair fabric, ottoman fabric (main bedroom), chair fabric (game area)

mgs milano: outdoor shower (guest bedroom)

pelican pools: pool (terrace)

ceramiche refin: pavers

lindsay cowles: wallpaper (bedroom)

paul smith: lamp

loro piana: chair fabric

verzelloni: bench

jane churchill: bench fabric

modernica: screens (game area)

Moooi: pendant fixture

salvatori: wall tile (bathroom)

concrete collaborative: countertop stone

ann sacks: floor tile

brizo: sink fittings

&tradition: lamp (den)

fleetwood windows & doors: windows, exterior doors

rheinzink: roof

harbour outdoor: outdoor furniture

Stonhard: resin floor coating

benjamin moore & co.: paint

Shamir Shah Goes West to Update a San Francisco Home

Shamir Shah Design has left its signature imprint all over the Manhattan residential map. So much so that when a sophisticated, world-traveled couple visited a lower Park Avenue loft principal Shamir Shah had created for friends, the pair was determined to bring the designer West—specifically to San Francisco, where a recently purchased Pacific Heights house was in need of a gut renovation. “All the things he did—art, furniture, textures, textiles, scale—spoke to each other,” the wife says of what initially attracted them to Shah’s distinctive style. An ensuing dinner party established that designer and clients had mutual respect and the right chemistry—prescient planning since the project took six years to complete, thanks to COVID erupting during the construction phase.

“We do interiors and architectural design,” Shah says of his practice, “mostly in New York, where we generally don’t work with an architect on smaller residential projects.” Thousands of miles away, San Francisco’s infamously labyrinthine permitting process presented another story: “We needed a local architect to shepherd the renovation through the building department, take charge of the house’s core and shell, and work in a truly collaborative spirit.” Enter Geddes Ulinskas Architects. In a flip of the usual procedure, it was the designer who brought on the architect after diligently interviewing three other prospects. “We enhanced each other’s roles,” principal Geddes Ulinskas reports, lauding the thoroughness of Shah’s drawings. “He produced a brilliant package that was a fantastic way of communicating and transmitting his passion for the project to the entire team.”

The Home Renovation Features Seismic Upgrades

The house, originally a 4,000-square-foot, three-level, wood-sided structure dating to 1947, was lackluster in design and substandard in construction. What it did have was location. At an elevation of 340 feet, the site offers panoramic views of San Francisco Bay. And in a city given to a mélange of residential styles, the property was located in a cul-de-sac of pedigree modernist houses by Gardner Dailey, Joseph Esherick, and William Wurster. In fact, the enclave is up for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

The second level is given over to private quarters: the main suite, two bedrooms, one doubling as a larger office, and a sitting room. The penthouse, which opens to a roof deck, is designated as a game room while more things recreational—a gym and a capacious wine cellar—join two additional bedrooms, a laundry, and a mudroom in the basement.

“In general, our work is quiet and serene,” Shah says of the furnishings and materials, which are frequently custom and used plentifully “for a rich, layered approach.” Pale creams and grays dominate the color palette, while bronze is the metal of choice. A characteristic vignette centers on the living room fireplace, which is surrounded by planes of travertine and flanked by a pair of oak-lined niches with custom bronze pedestals topped by Ju Ming sculptures, part of the family’s art collection.

“We wanted large walls for art,” Shah continues. Whether existing, purchased, or commissioned, the pieces were curated by the designer. An impressive Max Neumann canvas, one of the first works acquired and a Shah favorite, anchors the living room. A pair of Julian Watts stained-maple bas-reliefs adorn the adjoining wall, across from which hangs a Katherine Hogan wire sculpture, a ghostly presence reminiscent of the late San Francisco artist Ruth Asawa’s iconic pieces. Arguably closest to home is the commissioned site-specific mixed-media work spanning a media-room wall. Made of canvas, burlap, rope, and wood, it’s by Malcolm Hill, Shah’s life partner.

Inside the Curated, Art-Filled Home by Shamir Shah Design

shamir shah design: nely cuzo; cailen messersmith; olivia manzano; wendy wahlert

geddes ulinskas architects: alla agafonov; roma olišauskaitė

lutsko associates landscape architects: landscape consultant

jon brody structural engineers: structural engineer

matarozzi pelsinger builders: general contractor

todd merrill studio: custom sofas (living room)

through fair: floor lamp

through ralph pucci international: daybed

through galerie bsl: loveseat

la cividina: armchair

argosy designs: custom pedestal

Woven: custom rugs (living room, media room)

neolith: sintered stone (kitchen)

Holly Hunt: sconces (stair), chairs (dining room), armchairs (media room)

through maison gerard: sconce, shelf (entry)

Lindsey adelman studio: pendant fixture (entry), chandelier (dining room)

bddw: table (dining room)

chris french metal: custom front door (exterior)

amuneal: custom coffee table (media room)

emmemobili: table (penthouse)

dwr: chairs

garde: pendant fixture

phillip jeffries: wallcovering (bedroom)

bruno moinard éditions: armchairs (bedroom), sconces (penthouse)

B&B Italia: sectional (penthouse)

galanter & jones: seating (terrace)

erickson æsthetics: chair (office)

caste design: tables

Sacco: custom rugs

Resawn Timber Co.: accoya siding

amari: windows

benjamin moore & co.: paint

Meyer Davis Designs a Sprawling Manhattan Penthouse

2023 Best of Year Honoree for Large Apartment

A chance encounter started the ball rolling on the redesign of a full-floor penthouse atop one of New York’s most avant-garde structures. The glittering 56 Leonard in TriBeCa, completed in 2017 by Herzog & de Meuron, is often affectionately likened to a stack of Jenga blocks. The cantilevered upper floors make the 57-story building a standout on the downtown skyline and give its lucky residents uninterrupted 360-degree views.

“One weeknight, I was out having drinks with friends when a potential client happened to pop in,” recalls Will Meyer, principal of Meyer Davis. The men were acquainted but had not seen each other in years. “It was midnight, but he said, ‘I just bought this new apartment. Let’s go look at it.’” Up they went several dozen stories, emerging into a 5,500-square-foot aerie surrounded by 14-foot-tall windows. “Imagine coming out of the elevator and seeing these outrageous views. It was a white box with nothing going on but also the most amazing blank slate possible.”

Soon after, Meyer and fellow principal Gray Davis—jointly inducted last year into the Interior Design Hall of Fame—met with the homeowner to share their thoughts on making the vast residence more human-scale and inviting. “The client appreciates good design,” Davis says, “and loves music and hosting parties. But the apartment also had to feel comfortable when he’s there alone or with his kids.”

Meyer Davis Creates a Warm and Approachable Penthouse Design

“The client had a clear idea of how it should feel: warm and approachable,” says Meyer Davis associate Shannon Senyk, senior design lead on the project and at the firm. “The views were there, but the space itself was quite cold and austere. We needed to add layers through architectural finishes and soft, lush textures.” Conjuring welcome is a practiced skill for the firm, which places not only 60th on our 100 Giants list but also 24th among the Hospitality Giants.

Meyer Davis Transforms a Loftlike Layout into Functional Zones

The team devised a number of strategies to tame the open, loftlike layout, which is augmented by two terraces and a balcony totaling 1,600 square feet of outdoor real estate. “A super-large space should be zoned in subtle ways, making rooms without making walls,” Meyer observes. The designers arranged the furniture informally, with three separate seating groups in the main living area “so you can hop around and sit in different places,” as Davis puts it. Chief among the architectural upgrades—and there were many, including four-and-a-half renovated baths and an oak-and-marble kitchen beneath an existing statement stove hood—was a zoning gesture Meyer reports “made all the difference in the world”: a raised oak platform that spans about a quarter of the living area.

Furnishings Reflect a Relaxed Luxury Aesthetic 

The furnishings—predominantly new or custom pieces with a couple of vintage items thrown into the mix—all contribute to Meyer Davis’s trademark relaxed luxury, providing deep comfort while hold­ing their own against the grandeur of the architecture and the glory of the setting. Modern classics like Pierre Paulin lounge chairs and Ingo Mauer pendant fixtures join such contemporary pieces as a BassamFellows daybed and a Kelly Wearstler desk, the ensemble arranged so as not to disturb the pervasive feeling of cloud-borne calm. At the same time, the designers were mindful of placing the furniture in a way that, Meyer notes, “enhances your ability to take it all in.” The overall palette is neutral but far from colorless, comprising mostly blues, grays, and browns. The rust color of the velvet upholstery on a sofa in the den is the boldest hue in the apartment. “We brought in colors from the city and the sky,” Meyer concludes, “so as not to compete with the main event.”

---

---

Inside the Manhattan Penthouse With Expansive Views

meyer davis: anastasia bersetova; lindsay leonard

daniel demarco & associates; premium millwork: woodwork

silverlining: general contractor

jg switzer: beanbags (platform)

contardi: floor lamp

mellah: rug

William Gray: stools (kit­chen)

troscan design: table

gärsnäs: armchairs

erickson æsthetics: lounge chairs (living area)

tibetano: rug

BassamFellows: day­bed

rh: sectionals (living area, terrace)

andrianna shamaris: black side table (living area), console (entry)

jenni kayne: vase (entry)

flos: pen­dant fixture

sacco: rugs (entry, main bedroom)

rw guild: pendant fixtures (hall)

apparatus: sconces (hall, powder room), pendant fixtures (dining area, closet)

armada new york: custom table (dining area)

massproductions: chairs

Allied Maker: pendant fixture (bathroom)

seed design: table lamps (bedroom)

studio dunn: pendant fixture

castel; pollack: daybed fabric, pillow fabrics (den)

Montauk: sectional

ruemmler: pendant fixture

brooklyn workroom: custom daybed (den), custom headboard, custom sofa (main bedroom)

mokum: sectional fab­ric (Den), curtain fabric

menu design shop: mirrors (closet, powder room)

phillip jeffries: wallcovering (closet, powder room)

Gubi: chairs (main bedroom)

blackcreek mercantile & trading co.: coffee table

Ingo Maurer: pendant fixture

perennials fabrics: wallcovering

c&m shade: curtains

benjamin moore & co.: paint

Ghislaine Viñas Co-Designs Andra Hem, an Atypical B&B

If you can survive the 2-hour line to get into Andra Hem, Philadelphia’s chicest new night spot, you’re in for a rather delicious cocktail. The recipe: An ounce of hotel, a teaspoon of art, a twist of bar, a shot of lounge. Shake vigorously! Pour over ice and garnish with honey from the rooftop bee farm. Who is the crafty mixologist behind this spirited typological concoction? Why, it’s New York designer Ghislaine Viñas, teaming with her longtime friend and client/muse, art collector and dealer Paige West. The creative partners in crime have collaborated on too-many-to-count endeavors over just as many years. “Paige and I have been working together forever,” Viñas happily affirms. “One day we’re gonna be little old ladies, still designing projects.”

Let’s hope so! Each joint effort gets more intriguing. This 7,700-square-foot, four-story property, for instance, encompasses an intimate bilevel bar and, above, two one-bedroom floor-through suites. Although Andra Hem is the pair’s first full-on hospitality venture, the typology is not entirely without precedent: West makes an art form of giving her houseguests the hotel treatment. “It’s how Paige hosts friends and family,” Viñas notes of the Philadelphia native. “There’s always a minibar in the guest bedroom, a signature cocktail, branded towels, and things like that. It’s what spins her wheels.”

Envisioning the Design of Andra Hem, a Bar With Guest Suites Above

Artful Accents and Custom Designs Create an Inviting Interior

That goes for the décor as well, starting with the artwork that hangs behind the ground-floor bar, an 1800’s portrait from West’s private collection that lacked provenance so had minimal market value. The two had the canvas doctored with a layer of painted-on iconography—a bee, flowers, stylized waves—by Mark Mulroney, another frequent collaborator. (His quirkily surrealist murals also embellish the bar’s restrooms.) That retro-meets-futurist mashup encapsulates the entire project. “We juxtaposed a very traditional Swedish architecture layer with these wacky elements that tie into the overall narrative,” Viñas explains. Firmly in the trad column is the custom wall paneling, a concentric-square relief pattern based on one they’d encountered in an ancient Stockholm restaurant. In the wacky column, meanwhile, is Kim Alsbrooks’s framed miniature portraits painted on crushed beer cans. Lying somewhere in between classic and wack-tastic are David Trubridge’s swirly bentwood pendant globe upstairs, which call to mind barber poles or maybe sinister hard candy. “I get butterflies when I see those lights,” Viñas says. “Something about them ties back to a childhood memory I can’t quite place. I have a very beautiful emotional connection to these.”

The two floors of the bar are a pas de deux of similarity and difference. Viñas used the same furniture, paneling, and floral wallpaper on both levels, but altered the color palette (peacock-blue downstairs, mustard-and-black upstairs). She performed the same sleight of hand in the stacked suites, which share an identical layout and furniture plan but feature different fabrics—all bowl-you-over botanicals by mid-century Swedish icon Josef Frank. The trippy DayGlo-toned linen tenting the fourth-floor suite’s bedroom is Viñas’s favorite. “I could just stare at it all day; it’s so vibrant and exquisite.”

The riot of color and pattern that unifies the petite property is both a constant in Vinas’s work yet something of a departure. “I love when things clash, especially in small rooms,” she says. “Here, I really pushed for things to live together that shouldn’t, which was hard for me to do, because my design is so much about control.” It was worth it, she adds. “I loved being pushed outside my comfort zone.” All in the interest of putting guests into theirs, of course.

A Closer Look at the Colorful Cocktail Bar

Inside the Guest Suites at Andra Hem

PrevNext

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Ghislaine Viñas: jenna pino; jaime viñas; lauren mercuri; ashika amarnath

Stokes Architecture + Design: architect of record

bold lighting: lighting design

west collection: art consultant

harmony contract furniture: custom furniture workshop

coil + drift: glass pendant fixtures (blue bar)

vescom: curtain fabric

flavor paper: wallpaper

schumacher: banquette fabric

collector: custom tables (bars)

joss & main: ottomans

amazon: table lamps (yellow/black bar)

contardi: fabric pendant fixtures (blue bar), bedside lamps (suites)

lumen 8: custom sconce (exterior)

signs visual industries: custom plaque

imagine tile: custom tile (bath­room)

grout 360: custom grout

kjartan oskarsson studio: custom mirrors

fantini: sink fittings

schoolhouse: cabinet hardware

p.e. guerin: sink fittings (restroom)

established & sons: yellow pendant fixtures (suite)

david trubridge: pendant globes (yellow/black bar)

Wolf Gordon: custom wallpaper (lobby)

georgia lacey interiors: custom desk (suite)

through 1stdibs: desk lamp

ligne roset: sofa

Blu Dot: coffee table

kardiel: ottomans

kasthall: custom rug

design public group: white pendant fixture

57st. design: custom nightstands, custom media console (suites)

svenskt tenn: wallcovering, ottoman fabric

benjamin moore & co.: paint

designtex; hbf textiles: seating fabric

beautiful bed company: beds

The International Center of Photography Merges its Museum and School in One Hip Locale

Famed fashion photographer William Klein once said: “The camera can surprise us. We must help it do so.” Over the summer, the recently departed legend’s handiwork could be seen up close at International Center of Photography, the nearly 50-year-old New York institution dedicated to visual culture that just wrapped a Klein retrospective, as could Gensler’s.

The atrium of the neighboring gallery is double-height, too, and ringed by a catwalk, inviting visitors to get a different perspective. Unlike traditional galleries, Gensler designed ICP’s to be as varied as the exhibitions mounted, from intimate vestibules for vintage photographs to expansive swaths of wall for film projections. “They encourage the staging of a new type of image-making that is very much about our time,” ICP executive director David E. Little explains.
Of course, when it comes to all aspects of photo­graphy (and interiors), lighting is paramount. The galleries are illuminated by overhead fixtures tucked behind a veil of expanded galvanized sheet metal. “It’s flexible,” Morton shares, “ICP can turn the lights off above and the whole character changes.” Similarly ever-changing is the Essex facade’s triple-height glass facade. It fills the center with light while, like a camera lens, capturing happenings both within and beyond in its frame.

Iguzzini: linear fixture (hall)

caesarstone: desk material (lobby)

LG: digital screens

fern: custom bench (gallery)

mecho shade systems: motorized shades

epson: projector

Lindner: ceiling system

cree lighting: spotlights

usg: wall material

benjamin moore & co.: paint

pentagram: graphics consultant

Buro Happold: lighting consultant

wsp: structural engineer, mep

tobin woodworking: woodwork

richter + ratner: general contractor

Verona Carpenter Architects Transforms a SoHo Loft into an Artful Home

Laura Mattioli, an art scholar, curator, and collector, found her SoHo loft, and the one two floors up that now houses the Center for Italian Modern Art, on a tip from a friend back in 2011. A native of Milan, Mattioli had been looking for a place in Manhattan where she could open the foundation to spread the word about the modern and contemporary art of her homeland, but she needed a large, open space on one level that she could easily move works in and out of for exhibitions. Her friend had heard about a handsome cast-iron building on Broome Street with full-floor apartments that were about to come on the market. Mattioli immediately booked a flight to New York and within days she had nabbed two of them—one for CIMA and one for herself.

“Usually lofts are long and narrow with light only on the two shorter sides,” she says. That’s because the buildings typically stand shoulder to shoulder. Her building, however, which dates to 1873, has a single-story Con Edison utility structure next door, so the apartments from the second floor up also have sunlight streaming in all along the eastern side. Then, too, the ceilings are high, and the layouts offer one vast space overlooking the street and well-proportioned rooms off a wide hallway toward the back. And, the location couldn’t be beat: SoHo, a 19th-century dry goods district, was colonized in the 1970’s by painters and sculptors who turned old industrial spaces into live-work lofts, leading to an explosion of galleries in the area. Although perhaps better known today as a shopping destination, the neighborhood is still home to many creators and arts organizations.

Finding an architect proved trickier than finding the space, however. The first two Mattioli hired were more interested in making a statement. But she wanted the architecture to take a back seat to the art—some inherited from her collecting father, some purchased herself. Then she discovered Irina Verona, co-principal of Verona Carpenter Architects, who understood Mattioli’s point of view. “We like the approach of ‘light architecture’ that respects the surroundings and what happens in it,” she says, speaking of the work she and co-principal Jennifer Carpenter have been doing together since founding their firm in 2017, after Verona had taken on Mattioli’s project.

Verona first completed the center, which opened in 2013. Then came Mattioli’s 4,500-square-foot apartment, which, because it was to be a home, would be “more personal,” the architect notes. But otherwise, the priorities remained largely the same—“quiet architecture for a lot of amazing pieces,” referring to both Mattioli’s art and furniture, much of it mid-century.

She left the two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath layout largely unchanged but switched up the primary bathroom and a walk-in closet for better flow and to create space for a new staircase to a storage and mechanical mezzanine (another new stair leads to a small sleeping area). Verona also added a terrace—a maneuver that required obtaining approval from the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission because SoHo is an official historic district in which changes are strictly controlled.

The three-dimensional, one-of-a-kind art in the public areas is even more riveting. Sculptures by New Yorker Barry X Ball—two standing 10 feet high and one of them inspired by Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini, also in Milan—occupy one end of the open living/dining area. On the other side of the space, furniture by Gio Ponti, Alvar Alto, and Marco Zanuso hold their own near the fireplace. In the newly enclosed kitchen, tribal masks from Mozambique and Mali stand on a counter, inches from the olive oil. High on a wall in the hallway, rough granite blocks wrapped in steel cables are hung, daringly, over an 18th-century sideboard of intricate inlaid wood from Mattioli’s childhood home. The artwork, by Giovanni Anselmo, weighs a ton, literally, and Verona was responsible for ensuring that it would stay put.

Throughout the apartment she added plywood on one or both sides of the wall studs to ensure art could be hung securely. For the wall hosting a 1-ton piece, she had the studs reinforced with metal as well as additional wood. Then, to be safe, the art was also bolted right through the wall.

verona carpenter architects: ana maria reyes; hakan westergren

jim conti lighting design: lighting consultant

northeast contracting group: terrace contractor

old structures engineering: terrace structural engineer

charles g. michel engineering: mep

think construction: general contractor

dwr: sectional (living area), chairs (dining area, kitchen), sofa (study), table (terrace)

mdf italia: table (dining area)

cassina: chair (living area)

valcucine italia: cabinets, countertops (kitchen)

wolf: cooktop

franke: sink

Add tag via side panel:

Fritz Hansen: table

porcelanosa: custom vanity (powder room)

hansgrohe: sink fittings

kravet: wallpaper (powder room, guest bedroom)

valsan: towel bar (bathroom)

flavor paper: wallpaper (bathroom, study)

through 1stdibs: bookcases, sofa (alcove)

wyeth: nesting tables (study), bench (primary bedroom)

vitsoe: shelves (study)

artemide: lamp (primary bedroom)

breakwater bay: sconces (terrace)

nuimage: awning

lualdi: doors

halo: track fixtures

element lighting: recessed fixtures

benjamin moore & co.: paint

Neal Beckstedt Studio Transforms a Beaux-Arts Building into a Modern Office

Ever since Neal Beckstedt opened his eponymous studio in 2010, he’s had the good fortune of working with creative clients like fashion designer Derek Lam and eyewear maven Robert Marc. Another is innovative entrepreneur Albert Sebag, who approached Beckstedt for help with “his office” one day in 2019.

“I thought he meant his personal office,” Beckstedt says with a laugh. What Sebag actually had in mind was new headquarters for Guidepoint, the information-age business he founded in 2003. Guidepoint is a matchmaker of sorts, connecting clients, specifically global companies, in need of specialized information with the experts that can provide it. Currently, some 3,500 clients in a broad spectrum of industries—from healthcare to TMT—have at their disposal a network of 1,250,000 authorities for virtual or in-person consultations of practically any size. Almost half of the company’s 1,100 international employees would be based in the facility. What Guidepoint needed from Beckstedt, then, was an open and transparent arrangement of work spaces for clients, advisors, and full-time staff. Efficiency and versatility were stated goals.

After a six-month search, Sebag and Beckstedt found the ideal site in Chelsea: the entire 38,000-square-foot second floor of 675 Avenue of the Americas, a landmarked beaux-arts stunner built in 1900 as the Adams Dry Goods department store. “It was a bit of a mess inside,” the designer acknowledges, “but it had beautiful columns, high ceilings, and tons of light—all on one level.” That the building incorporated a central atrium also helped with the layout. “Most offices of this scale are worms’ nests of dark corridors; the atrium allowed for a completely open plan flooded with natural light.”

After demolishing the many interior walls and partitions, Beckstedt went about creating a unique config­uration of work zones in a controlled materials palette that invokes Gotham’s loft-conversion aesthetic. “I wanted the design to be straightforward,” he explains. “It’s about elevating mundane building materials— plywood, metal mesh, stainless steel—so the environment is clean and modern with a streamlined element, but still warm and interesting in a way that isn’t boring or overpowering.”

Beckstedt’s sense of delight helped raise visual engagement. He left much of the original brick exposed and enlivened the palette of blacks, whites, grays, and beiges with shots of a hot yellow taken from Guidepoint’s logo. The designer even opted to keep a pink wall, daubed with a bit of whim­sical graffiti, which had been revealed when plasterboard was stripped away during demolition.

Most of Beckstedt’s custom pieces are modular, and much of the purchased FF&E is versatile, such as the adjustable-height workstations. He limited the selection of furniture, focusing on familiar mid-century pieces by the likes of Alvar Aalto, Charles and Ray Eames, and Mies van der Rohe. “It keeps things calm and consistent,” he notes. “So many offices try so hard to be interesting that they wind up with visual chaos.”

Beckstedt spent a great deal of his time developing the program, accommodating as many people as Guidepoint needed into the square footage. “The overall strategy was about being functional, about letting the function become the design,” he explains. “Ornamentation wasn’t going drive it, and that informed every decision, from the layout to not replacing missing sections of the crown molding. This project is about work and the history of the building and the city.”

Even the lobby, which stretches along a wall of commanding arched windows, is an interactive work space. “It’s not just a place for people to wait,” Beckstedt says. “It’s where team members can meet, use laptops, have a quick chat, or just take a break.” In theory and praxis, the genius loci at Guidepoint is connection.

facility solutions group: lighting consultant

lilker: mep

hollinger fine cabinetry: woodwork

mcnichols: metalwork

master’s upholstery: custom furniture workshop

b&b contracting group: general contractor

savel: sofa fabric (lobby)

chemetal: coffee table laminate

vitra: stools, side chairs (lobby, café)

fitzfelt: re­ception desk felt (ceo suite)

through merit: vintage desk

Patterson Flynn: rugs

empire office: conference chairs

knoll­textiles: armchair fabric (ceo suite), cushion fabric (training room)

dwr: armchairs (ceo suite), chairs (podcast studio, large conference room)

polygal: enclosure system (booths)

pinta acoustic: paneling (podcast studio)

Kohler: sink fittings (restroom)

knoll: workstations, task chairs (office, office area)

bernhardt; camira fabrics; designtex; febrik; hbf textiles; luum textiles; maharam; pollack: cushion fabric (training room)

ann sacks: floor tile

stark: carpet

laminart: tabletop laminate

bartco; coronet; delray lighting; liteline: lighting

benjamin moore & co.: paint

MetroWall: Glass partitions

This MKDA-Designed Headquarters in Miami Features Museum-Ready Art

If you live in Miami and care about art and architecture, you’ll be familiar with Jorge M. Pérez and Related Group, the development company he founded in 1979. Born in 1949 in Argentina to Cuban parents, and raised in Colombia, Pérez emigrated in 1968 to this country. After earning a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Michigan, he began his career by constructing affordable housing, graduating to high-rise apartment buildings in both North and South America. Now a billionaire art collector and philanthropist, the “King of the Condo,” as some call him, made such a transformative gift to the former Miami Art Museum that the institution was renamed the Pérez Art Museum Miami when it moved into its new Herzog & de Meuron home in 2013.

In 2021, Related relocated its headquarters to the top two floors of a new LEED-certified concrete-and-glass building in Coconut Grove, Miami’s historically art-minded neighborhood, where Pérez and his wife, Darlene, live—as do Bernardo Fort-Brescia and Laurinda Spear, the founding principals of Arquitectonica, which designed the eight-story gem. To create the building’s interiors, Pérez turned to the Miami studio of MKDA, a multicity firm that made its reputation by revolutionizing the fashion showrooms of Manhattan’s Garment District. Regional managing principal Amanda Hertzler and her team joined the project early on, working most closely with Related senior vice president Nicholas Pérez, Jorge’s son (his brother Jon Paul is the company’s president), but much of the proceedings were driven by the founder and CEO himself.

PrevNext

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

“In addition to the building lobby and the Related offices, we also designed the elevator lobbies, the elevator cabs, restrooms, and a law firm on the fourth floor,” Hertzler reports. “Because we were going to install a lot of art, we kept the materials muted and neutral.” In the ground-floor lobby, for instance, she covered walls with slabs of matte porcelain that resemble marble but used scored, sandblasted gray limestone on the reception desk and other surfaces to create a softening contrast. She then added flashes of Champagne-finished stainless steel for some inimitable Miami elan.

Even more playful is the lobby’s coffered ceiling, a modernized nod to the carved-wood versions found in Coconut Grove’s historic Mediterranean-style mansions. “We changed the shapes of the coffers, so they’re all different,” notes Hertzler, who backed each recess with a sheet of LumaFilm—a flexible, paper-thin membrane incorporating tiny LEDs—to provide soft, ambient light overhead. The building’s mechanical systems are hidden above the glowing fabric, but the lobby’s rotating display of artworks is accommodated with visible gallery-style track lights that can be refocused remotely.

Related’s main reception area—its massive stainless-steel and marble desk set off by a wall of backlit rosewood panels—and executive offices occupy the top floor, while employee work spaces and facilities, including a collaborative area and a lounge, fill the floor below. “The building has an offset core,” Hertzler observes, “which would tend to make the interior of each floor quite dark.” On the other hand, it allowed Arquitectonica to sink a two-story glass-enclosed atrium at the center of the headquarters. “Related has a traditional corporate culture,” continues Hertzler, “so we installed the usual per­imeter offices, but the atrium floods the interiors with light. The transparency comes with a connectivity, because you can see people working on the other side.” On both floors, she created communal spaces that take full advantage of the atrium’s natural light.

There is art everywhere, some 300 pieces that range in form from the traditional oil on canvas to every imaginable “alternative” medium, including an Ai Weiwei “painting” composed of Lego bricks. A 16-foot-long bench in reception that appears to be a cast-bronze version of a Mies van der Rohe Barcelona daybed is, in fact, a metallic-painted fiberglass-and-steel piece created by Judy Niedermaier in the 1990’s for the lobby of the Mies-designed IBM building in Chicago. The bench had to be craned into place because it wouldn’t fit in the freight elevator.

The bench sits next to the grand Calacatta Toscana marble staircase that connects the floors and also acts as a platform for artworks, which undergo a monthly rotation. “That doesn’t mean every piece is changed every month,” Hertzler explains, “but a lot of the art travels and needs to be swapped out.” Pérez has promised his collection to the museum that now bears his name. “One of the nicest things about the art installation is how approachable it is, even in the common areas.”

Along with their own lounge, employees get two outdoor spaces in which to relax: a courtyard terrace at the base of the atrium and an expansive Arquitectonica-designed roof garden, which includes a covered area and open zones with enviable views of Biscayne Bay. “The roof is lush and eclectic, with beautiful, old, exterior-grade furniture,” Hertzler concludes. “At Related, even the seating is art.”

MKDA: kamilah bermudez; tonya watts; erin london

jalrw engineering group: mep

hyton engineering: civil engineer

advanced millwork: woodwork

city construction: general contractor

knoll: chairs, daybed (lobby)

Rimex Metals: reception desk (lobby), paneling (elevator lobby)

galaxy glass: glass panels (ele­vator lobby)

through 1stdibs: custom bench (reception)

exotic hardwoods + veneers: paneling

Coalesse: stools (collaboration)

Kvadrat Maharam: stool fabric

cf stinson: lounge chair fabric

acoufelt: ceiling baffles

gable roofs: lounge chairs, high tables (collaboration), desks (offices)

besa lighting: sconces (employee lounge)

perennials fabrics: booth fabric

woodtech: custom table (conference room), custom desk (ceo office)

stylex seating: task chairs

muuto: chairs (employee lounge)

designtex: banquette fabric

ben soleimani: sofa (ceo office)

carl hansen & søn: lounge chairs

piero lissoni: coffee table

robert kuo: red table (lounge)

empire office: furniture supplier

muraflex: storefront systems

florim: floor tile, wall slabs

architile: marble, quartz, terrazzo supplier

universal tile & marble enterprises: lime­stone supplier

heilux: stretch fabric lighting

Finelite: lighting

lightheaded: lighting

liton lighting:: lighting

bentley: carpet

benjamin moore & co.: paint

Jennifer Kolstad and Ghafari Associates Propel the Ford Experience Center in Michigan into the Future

2022 Best of Year Winner for Office Transformation

Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903 and today is one of the biggest car companies in the world. Despite its long history, Ford is focused squarely on the future, developing new technologies like smart infrastructure and self-driving vehicles. Yet for over 20 years, the main events facility at its headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, was a dark and uninviting concrete structure. Company executives sought to reimagine it as a cutting-edge “front door” to the 600-acre campus, which itself is being overhauled under a master plan by Snøhetta. They turned to Jennifer Kolstad, the in-house global design and brand director, and her 20-person team to renovate the 1998 building and transform it into the Ford Experience Center, or FXC.

Ford’s leaders envisioned the FXC as a dynamic hospitality-inspired hub for employees, car dealers, and major customers. It would have flexible event spaces, conference rooms, a café, and hot-desking, plus an on-site design lab where employees could work with clients like the City of Los Angeles to customize and prototype police vehicles. The FXC is also meant to reflect a new company-wide emphasis on innovation and collaboration. Positioned across the street from the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, the FXC symbolizes “Ford future facing Ford past,” Kolstad notes. Her design encompasses aspects of both.

Kolstad worked on the 95,000-square-foot project with Ghafari Associates, which served as the architect of record but also designed major elements of the interior and helped with the selection of furnishings. Together, the two teams completely transformed the existing two-story building, keeping only its structure and oval shape. “Even though the space is similar to what it was, an event center, we had to take it to the next level,” architect and Ghafari director of design Andrew Cottrell recalls. The goal was to create an environment that felt open and transparent. “Ford wishes to be the most trusted company in the world, and architecture can help that along,” Kolstad adds.

To start, the concrete walls were out. Ford and Ghafari re-skinned the facade with electrochromic glass that brings ample light to the interior but can also tint for shade. Kolstad, who was a principal at HKS before joining Ford in 2019, brought a focus on wellness and human-centered design to the project. She incorporated two green walls in the café, called the Hive, and ensured that even enclosed rooms have natural light and views of the surrounding lawns. She also integrated the building into the landscape: Terraces allow for events to flow outdoors, and the central corridor aligns with the front door of the Henry Ford Museum.

The FXC showcases the future of automobiles, but it’s grounded in Ford’s history. “The building speaks to the legacy of the company through its use of museum-quality materials,” Kolstad explains. “If the foundation is solid and well-executed, the brand can breathe and take on its own life.” In the central forum, polished white-terrazzo flooring and oak stadium seating form a timeless backdrop for what is in fact a high-tech, production-ready space. At the touch of a button, the lighting can change to suit a cocktail party, presentation, or launch event, and cars rotate on a turntable in the floor. Overhead, a sculpted white ceiling of acoustical plaster conceals lighting and mechanical systems, with cuts that mirror the lines in the terrazzo floor. “We had to coordinate myriad things to make the ceiling look seamless,” Cottrell says.

Like the building, the forum is the shape of the Ford logo: an oval. “You won’t see the logo anywhere, but you’re literally inside the Ford oval,” Kolstad says. “The space tells the company’s story in a subtle, sophisticated way.” Ovals appear in the symbol of the Hive, making the shape of a bee, and in custom lighting fixtures, while velvet in the brand’s deep blue upholsters the café’s banquettes. Covers of retro Ford Life magazines hang in phone booths, and broken ovals appear in the pattern of blue vinyl wallcovering. Kolstad’s team also deconstructed the oval to make a camouflagelike pattern for blue-and-white area rugs. All furnishings, materials, and finishes demonstrate a new palette that will be used in Ford showrooms and offices worldwide, including the nearby workplace by Snøhetta now under construction.

Though Kolstad describes the FXC as an “immersive brand experience,” you won’t find a Ford sign at reception. Instead, there’s a mirrored acrylic work by Detroit artist Tiff Massey, one of several in her team’s DEI-focused art program for the project. Inspired by traditional American quilts, it’s composed of seven designs—representing each of Ford’s company truths—laser-cut onto 90 tiles. An asymmetrical solid-walnut desk in front of it, designed by Ghafari, looks like a sculpture that alludes to movement. Elsewhere, three abstract artworks by Los Angeles artist Robert Moreland refer to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the French car race that Ford won in the late 1960’s. With the FXC, it’s leading again as a cool, tech-savvy company.

---

---

ford environments: julia calabrese; rachael smith; chris small; don zvoch

ghafari associates: michael krebs; brittnee shaw; angela cwayna; joseph kim; delbert dee; justin finkbeiner; stephanie hrit; jennifer hatheway; katy rupp; steve lian; yuqi pan; bruce coburn; justine lim; karan panchal; ali zorkot; christopher olech; ryan raymond; cynthia harman-jones; kristina allder

illuminart: lighting consultant

farmboy: art consultant, custom wallcovering

denn-co construction; ganas; navy island: woodwork

devon industrial group: general contractor

tacchini: benches (forum)

viccarbe: benches (lounge)

dwr: chairs

bernhardt; designtex: banquette fabric (café)

Coalesse: tables (café), chair (phone booth)

geiger: chairs (café, innovation)

Stellar Works: sofas (break-out, collaboration, grand hall)

carnegie: wallcovering (break-out)

stua: coffee table

zauben: green wall (café)

preciosa: custom pendant fixtures

keilhauer: stools

Tarkett: carpet (phone booth)

Humanscale: lamp

Blu Dot: tables (innovation, grand hall)

restoration hardware: lamp (grand hall)

michielutti brothers: flooring

shaw contract: custom rugs

benjamin moore & co.: paint

Aidlin Darling Design and Susan Marinello Interiors Team Up on This Modern Office in Seattle

2022 Best of Year Winner for Small Tech Office

For Expedia Group, travel is a way of life. When the tech company, which includes Expedia.com along with Vrbo, Orbitz, Travelocity, and hundreds more travel aggregator sites, took over a 40-acre waterfront campus along Seattle’s Elliott Bay in 2015, a central aim was to help employees experience the physical and mental benefits of travel, without leaving the office. “With all the acreage in hand, our goal was to create a destination on the grounds—sort of an on-site ‘offsite,’” Expedia’s director of real estate Josh Khanna says. In 2017, Aidlin Darling Design, known for their intimately crafted residences and commercial interiors, won the bid to create a new sheltered on-campus environment for staff to work and gather but also retreat.

Called the Prow, the single-story, 3,700-square-foot building is a deliberate departure from the multistory steel, glass, and concrete structures of the main campus. “Expedia’s leadership group was in tune with creating a full-body, sensorial workplace,” begins Joshua Aidlin, principal and cofounder, with David Darling, of ADD. “The ethos of Seattle is outdoor-focused and athletic, and Expedia embraced that.” The common end for this ancillary structure was a biophilic sanctuary that celebrates the landscape in both form and function.

Nestled into the southernmost edge of campus closest to the waterfront, the Prow is sited several hundred feet from Expedia’s primary work spaces. In contrast to the slick industrial language of those buildings, the volume emphasizes natural materials like stone and wood, helping it knit into the surroundings. “We didn’t want to block the view of the bay from the offices, so we needed to create a structure that was hidden in plain sight,” Aidlin explains. For his team, which was co-led by senior associate Adam Rouse, the solution was a building that is of the landscape in every sense.

Appearing to grow from the earth, the Prow’s stone-formed walls angle down into the ground plane to connect seamlessly with the existing riprap-stone walls delineating the campus border. It gracefully merges into the ziggurat-shape grass terraces defining this portion of the grounds, part of a larger campus master plan by Surfacedesign. Indigenous grasses planted here continue uninterrupted along the roof of the Prow. “It’s meant to be a diamond in the rough—intentionally organic, intentionally hidden,” Aidlin notes. “There’s an element of discovery because it presents as a landscape rather than a building.”

indoor-outdoor spaces encourage exploration in Expedia Group’s modern office

Expedians who make the open-air trek to the Prow—often braving the ubiquitous Pacific Northwest rain—are rewarded with a cozy hideaway that feels more woodland cabin than workplace. That’s thanks to president and principal design director Susan Marinello and senior design associate Louisa Chang of Susan Marinello Interiors, which evoked a relaxed, residential environment where employees can enjoy a moment of quiet contemplation in softly upholstered furnishings aside a glowing fireplace. “Expedia offers a window to the world, so our concept reflects those collective travel experiences by curating items from across the globe,” Marinello says of the many art-inspired furnishings, crafted by makers from locales as far flung as India and Brazil. The showstopper is the 20-person conference table, which contains no screws and was custom-built from a pair of book-matched black walnut slabs by George Nakashima Woodworkers, the company founded by the famed late Seattle furniture designer. Employees can reserve the table for larger meetings away from the hustle and bustle of the main office. (The Prow also accommodates events with a catering kitchen tucked into a corner.)

A set of sliding panels in a floor-to-ceiling glass wall opens to the outdoors, allowing those meetings to spill out to an elevated deck with views of Mount Rainier in the distance and bikes and Segways zooming by on the Elliott Bay Trail below. Since the building fronts a city park and is visible from boats in the water, ADD considered its appearance from all directions. “The building takes the landscape and covers itself with it like a blanket, while presenting a crystalline-inspired window to the public,” Rouse says.

The Prow is a study in contrasts, with the grounded, stone walls and green roof nestling into the earth just as it appears to take flight at the opposite end. There, the sharply pointed roof that cantilevers out 50 feet lifts off above the deck, taking the form of an airplane wing or, as the building’s namesake suggests, a ship’s bow. “The site experiences so many modes of transportation: trains, planes, automobiles, scooters, bikes, boats, so the structure is meant to inspire the concept of motion and flight,” says Aidlin, referencing the travel-centric ethos of Expedia.

Ultimately, this notion of grounded aspiration informs how this unconventional office space shifts the mindset of Expedians, breaking up routines and inspiring new forms of interaction. “They have to go out into nature and experience the elements to access the Prow,” Chang says. “It physically and emotionally transports them.” At a moment when the world is returning to the office, the project signals a new mode of workplace connection that’s taking flight.

---

---

a closer look at the design details throughout

Aidlin Darling Design: david darling, faia; ryan hughes; luis sabatar musa; laing chung; kent chiang; tony schonhardt

Susan Marinello Interiors: dena mammano

ZGF: Campus Architect

surfacedesign: landscape architect

fisher marantz stone: lighting consultant

KPFF: structural engineer, civil engineer

wsp: MEP

js perrott: woodwork, stonework

gly construction: general contractor

george nakashima woodworkers: custom table (conference area)

vaughan benz: custom chairs

Maharam: chair fabric

advanced ironworks: custom fence (entry)

driscoll robbins fine carpets: rug (lounge)

Holly Hunt: sectional

misia paris; zak + fox: sectional fabrics

thayer coggin: chairs

douglass leather: chair upholstery

DeMuro Das: bench

dan pollock: custom table

uchytil’s custom woodworking: custom console

alessandra delgado design: lamps (lounge, reading area)

daltile: tile (rest­room)

zurn: toilet

rockwood: door pull

Janus et Cie: table (deck)

triconfort: chairs

meyer wells: stools

ak47 design: firepit

montigo: fireplace (reading area)

a. rudin: chair

bernhardt textiles: chair fabric

creoworks: custom ceiling system

brandsen floors: flooring

lucifer lighting company; luminii: lighting

Arcadia: storefront windows

phoenix panels: exterior metal paneling

hartung: glazing

columbia green technologies: green roof system

benjamin moore & co.: paint