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  • Outdoor dining on New York City streets becomes permanent

    New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has made the Open Restaurants Program, which allows restaurants in the city to extend seating onto streets, sidewalks and public spaces, permanent following the coronavirus pandemic.First temporarily initiated in June to allow restaurants to continue doing business while adhering to social distancing restrictions, the programme will now be a year-round fixture, De Blasio announced on 25 September.
    The Open Restaurants Program, which has seen outdoor dining spaces pop up across the city, will boost the capacity of restaurants as they open indoor dining at 50 per cent capacity as New York gradually reopens after the coronavirus lockdown.
    Restaurants allowed to heat outdoor spaces and build tents
    Under the scheme, eateries are allowed to extend seating onto sidewalks and roadways, or onto adjacent outdoor spaces with their neighbours’ consent. Establishments must follow a list of requirements for an Open Restaurant design, which include a clear path on the pavement, a maximum distance from the curb and a required height of enclosing barriers.
    De Blasio’s extension will also introduce guidelines for restaurants to heat outdoor areas during the colder winter months, which will be released by the end of September.

    David Rockwell unveils kit to build restaurants on streets following pandemic

    These regulations will allow the installation of electrical heaters on both sidewalks and roadways, and propane and natural gas heaters only on pavements. Propane will require a permit from New York City Fire Department.
    Restaurants will also be able to build tents, ranging from partial to full enclosures, in order to keep diners warm.
    Outdoor seating enables safe dining amid pandemic
    Food establishments will have to apply online for permission to become an Open Restaurant. Three or more restaurants on a street that is closed to traffic can also apply together to expand outdoors in another option known as Open Streets: Restaurants.
    Following the city lockdown, more than 10,300 restaurants citywide reopened with activities outdoors over summer, according to the New York Times, allowing them to stay afloat amid the coronavirus pandemic.
    A number of architects and designers also came up with creative ways for restaurants to allow safe dining post-Covid-19. In May, ahead of New York’s outdoor dining programme, designer David Rockwell created a kit of parts to turn the city’s streets into outdoor restaurants with socially distanced dining.
    His firm, Rockwell Group, later built a pro-bono DineOut NYC project (pictured top) comprising 120 seats for restaurants on Mott Street in Chinatown.
    Arts centre Mediamatic also developed a socially distanced dining experience in Amsterdam where guests sit in their own greenhouse and hosts wear face shields.
    Photograph of DineOut NYC is by Emily Andrews for Rockwell Group.

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  • The Maker Hotel in Hudson channels “old-world bohemian glamour”

    Original decor features and vintage treasures helped Lev Glazman, Alina Roytberg and Damien Janowicz create an eclectic sense of old-world charm inside this boutique hotel in Hudson, New York.Host to just 11 rooms, The Maker Hotel is the brainchild of Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg, the co-founders of skincare brand Fresh, and hospitality specialist Damien Janowicz.

    The Maker Hotel takes over three historic buildings in Hudson
    This isn’t the first time that Glazman and Roytberg have ventured out of the beauty industry – back in 2016 they also worked with Janowicz to open the doors to Bartlett House, a bakery-cum-cafe serving seasonal dishes in the town of Ghent, New York.

    When it came to creating The Maker Hotel, Glazman wanted to focus on “celebrating the world of makers”, utilising different forms of craftsmanship to foster unique spaces for guests.

    A newly built conservatory houses the hotel’s restaurant
    “During my travels, I always felt there was an opportunity to expand the hospitality experience – one that inspires and allows you to dream,” he explained. “We knew we could execute The Maker concept in Hudson because the area was so rich with artisans, history and design, and it was the perfect location.”
    “Moving away from standardized design, The Maker fuses different periods, and builds a home where this eclectic design can exist harmoniously,” Glazman added.

    Inside The Maker Hotel are just 11 guest rooms
    Construction works were first carried out to connect the various rooms throughout the 14,000-square foot (1,300 square metres) hotel, which is composed of three different buildings – a Georgian mansion, a Greek revival-style property and a carriage house that dates back to the early 1800s.
    New structural additions were also made, including a central courtyard filled with lush greenery and a “jewel box”-like conservatory that now accommodates The Maker Hotel’s main restaurant.

    The design team worked to keep as many original features as possible throughout the rooms
    Attention was then turned to the interiors, which were largely designed by Glazman – Roytberg focused on the hotel’s branding, while Janowicz worked on refining guest experience.

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    Glazman and the design team sought to keep to as many original features as possible, preserving the ornate fireplaces, hand-painted ceilings, stained-glass windows and tiled mosaic flooring that already existed across the three buildings.

    One room includes bookshelves and an oak fireplace
    Over 70 per cent of the decorative pieces are antique or were made bespoke by combining salvaged objects. Some of the artworks even come from Glazman’s personal collection.
    “The result is unexpected; an old-world bohemian glamour that fuses a worldly design ethos shaped by decades of travel,” he concluded.

    Most of the decor elements are antiques
    This same eclectic style seeps through to the guest suites, of which there are five typologies: The Bedrooms, The Terrace Lofts, The Corner Studio and The Maker Studios.
    The Maker Studios are each inspired by four different creative figures – an architect, artist, gardener, writer – and have been styled accordingly. For example, The Artist room includes a vintage easel, while The Writer room sees book-lined shelves arranged around an oak fireplace.
    When not in their rooms, guests can then enjoy the hotel’s pool, cafe or intimate cocktail bar.

    The Maker Hotel also includes an intimate cocktail bar
    The Maker Hotel joins a growing number of getaway spots in New York that are situated away from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. Others include The Hoxton in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which sits on the site of an old water tower.
    Photography is by Francine Zaslow.

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  • New York clothing store Nanamica is designed like a Japanese house

    Woodwork form the frame of a gabled house inside this clothing store in New York designed by Japanese architect Taichi Kuma.

    Tokyo-based Kuma designed the store cn the city’s Soho neighbourhood for Japanese clothing brand Nanamica.

    Large mirrors reflect the gabled structure
    Marking its second outpost following another in Tokyo, the store was designed to draw on the brand’s Nanamica, which means house of seven seas. Working with the brand founder, Eiichiro Hommam, Kuma developed the interior design to take cues from a Japanese beach house.

    Shelving is made from matching wood
    The aim is to express “the free and relaxed feeling of the seaside, but with a distinctly Japanese aesthetic sensibility meaning the true highlight is the nanamica products”, according to the brand.

    Shelving and clothing rails tucked outside the wood frame
    A key part of this is a series of gabled structures made from light oak that are intended to outline a house. The frame is slightly smaller that the store to leave space on the outside for shelving for handbags and plants, and clothing rails built on the walls made out of matching wood.
    Wooden shelving for clothing and benches for customers to relax are also arranged inside the house-like structure. The free-standing shelving is backed by a translucent, recycled corrugated plastic matching the wall of the material at the front of the store and the rear, where it shields changing rooms placed behind.

    Corrugated plastic shields changing rooms at the rear
    Two large mirrors are placed on columns that protrude into the space creating the illusion of more room. White spotlighting is arranged along the top of the gable running down the middle of the space.
    Kuma and Hommam stripped back the initial space to create Nanamica New York, creating a bare backdrop for the simple intervention. Walls and ceiling beams are painted white, while the floor is polished concrete.

    Nanamica is located on Wooster Street
    Other recently completed stores in New York City include ONS Clothing store, which features a stage with a green curtain for hosting events, and Los Angeles clothing brand Lunya’s space in Nolita, which takes cues from “upscale New York” apartments.

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  • Rapt Studio fashions soothing interiors for Goop HQ in Santa Monica

    Design agency Rapt Studio has used curved furnishings and soft colours to create a calming ambience inside the Santa Monica headquarters of lifestyle and wellness brand Goop.The two-floor HQ measures 55,000 square feet (5,109 square metres) and provides a unified workspace for Goop, which was founded by actress Gwyneth Paltrow. Prior to this team members had been scattered between different buildings.

    The lobby of Goop’s Santa Monica headquarters
    “We designed their new, light-filled headquarters in Santa Monica to preserve the buzz they’d maintained in close quarters, while giving big ideas room to roam,” explained Rapt Studio.

    “[Staff] needed a place to concentrate their energy and efforts to propel the brand into its next phase of development.”

    A corner of the lobby is dominated by a sculptural metal desk
    Employees enter the head office via a spacious lobby. One corner of the room is dominated by a custom-made desk made by Los Angeles-based studio Artcrafters.
    The desk comprises four bulky metal blocks which are meant to mimic the rounded shape of the letters that feature in Goop’s company logo.

    The headquarters includes a kitchen where staff can test recipes
    Curved forms go on to feature in the adjacent waiting area where a pink, crescent-shaped sofa and bench seat perch on a woven circular rug. An oversized white pendant light is suspended overhead, while behind stands a golden wire-frame screen.
    The lobby leads through to a sequence of work areas – this includes a lab for developing new products, a podcast-recording studio and a fashion workshop where designs for Goop’s clothing line, G Label, will be drawn up.

    There is also a product showroom on-site
    A test kitchen finished with jet-black joinery offers a spot for staff to experiment with recipes and film cooking tutorials for Goop’s YouTube channel.
    There is also a small showroom on-site. At its centre is a chunky stone-topped counter inbuilt with a sink where the beauty and skincare products on display can be trialled out.

    Goop staff work around bespoke desks
    Staff have been given bespoke workstations. For formal meetings they can head to one of the conference rooms, which are decorated with past and present examples of Goop merchandise.

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    Expansive floor-to-ceiling panels of glazing flood spaces throughout the HQ in natural light.
    This is seen best in what employees refer to as the “All Hands” area, which boasts views of the palm tree-lined LA skyline.

    Conference rooms are decorated with framed Goop merchandise
    The room is used for casual catch-ups or large-scale staff gatherings. It includes a light-hued timber kitchen and a trio of arched niches that accommodate tan-leather seating banquettes.
    There are also a couple of grey modular sofas that can be rearranged to suit different-sized workgroups.

    Light-hued timber lines the staff kitchen
    “The intent of the material palette was to evoke a sense of calming familiarity,” said Rapt Studio’s president and creative director, Sam Farhang.
    “Natural, warm materials and soft tones create a welcoming environment, allowing the Goop team to feel at home within the space,” he told Dezeen.

    This light-filled room can be used for informal meetings
    Tapping into Goop’s wellness-focused ethos, Rapt Studio also made sure to incorporate a yoga room and a number of secluded lounge spots and private booths for staff.
    “These spaces – cocooned and concealed – are designed for reflecting, replenishing, and recharging,” added the studio.

    It features arched niches with tan-leather seating banquettes
    Goop was launched by Paltrow in 2008, starting life as a weekly newsletter before growing into a brand that offers wellness, beauty and style advice.
    Its trendy HQ is one of several that Rapt Studio has designed – back in 2017 it completed head offices for streetwear brand Vans, including meeting rooms lined with skateboards and huge graffiti wall murals.
    In 2014 it also created headquarters for e-ticketing company Eventbrite, which has break-out areas with stadium-style seating.
    Photography is by Madeline Tolle.

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  • Clothing racks move along wheeled tracks in Los Angeles athletic store Reigning Champ

    Vancouver studio Peter Cardew has designed this store in Los Angeles for an athletic wear clothing company to allude to the aesthetic of a gym.The Reigning Champ store at 115 South La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles features walls covered in white glazed tiles, concrete floors and wooden clothing rails – simple materials chosen by Peter Cardew to follow the style of a gymnasium.

    “In order to connect the customer with the product the design of the Los Angeles store obliquely alludes to the domain of a gym, providing an harmonious setting appropriate for the display of athletic clothing,” the studio explained.

    “The choice of materials reinforces the relationship to sporting activity with the use of functional and utilitarian white glazed tile as wall and bench surfaces, polished concrete floors, and display fixtures fabricated using western hemlock, a plentiful economic wood with a straight grain efficiency,” it added.
    “All culminating to convey a functional place of activity akin to any effective sporting milieu.”

    Piles of folded clothes are stored in the base of the wooden clothing racks that are suspended on rails from the ceiling.
    The wooden structures, which are braced with metalwork, have wheels fitted the top of the wooden structures so they can be easily moved around the store.

    “In keeping with this active rather than passive environment the display fixtures are infinitely mobile being suspended from concrete beams attached to wheeled tracks which easily allows for changing seasonal configurations,” the studio added.

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    “In addition, to facilitate yet more changes these fixtures are simply bolted together so that they can be removed for special events, celebrations, or exhibitions.”

    Photograph by Andrew Latreille
    The materiality continues into the changing rooms, whose doors feature an opening with a built-in wooden shelf so customers can swap clothes with Reigning Champ salespeople.
    Reigning Champ spans the ground floor of its building with two large windows offering views and natural light into the space.

    The project, which is longlisted in the large retail interior category of Dezeen Awards 2020, marks the first in the US for the Canadian clothing brand. It is its fifth in total following two in Vancouver and two in Toronto.
    Other shops recently completed in Los Angeles include a marijuana dispensary Commune designed to be airy and luxurious, and a dramatically narrow, runway-like space Bernard Dubois designed as the first store for sneaker brand APL.
    Photography is by Mike Kelly, unless stated otherwise.

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  • The Wayfinder hotel designed to “feel as if you were staying with friends” in Rhode Island

    New York design practice Reunion Goods & Services has renovated this hotel in Rhode Island to be reminiscent of a colourful home with a fireplace and cosy seating nooks.Formerly the Mainstay Hotel, The Wayfinder property is located in Newport and was refurbished by Reunion Goods & Services for developer Dovetail + Co. It includes 197 suites, a restaurant, lounge, patio and outdoor swimming pool.

    Reunion Goods & Services designed the hotel to be evocative of a house rather than a hotel and sought to optimise the amount of natural light. White walls are enlivened with a variety of colours like burnt red, blue, green and mustard.

    “The goal of this project was to freshen the spaces and bring as much light into the rooms as possible,” the team said. “The intent was always for the rooms to feel as if you were staying with friends or at a summer house.”

    The rest of the interior design is a combination of existing details, like stone and terrazzo floors with wood-panelled walls, alongside woven and wooden furniture pieces for a relaxed yet playful feel.
    The lobby features its original white terrazzo flooring with a new dark blue ceiling for contrast, while a free-standing fireplace in mustard with a glass enclosure is the focal point. It is surrounded by a custom white sofa in a U-shape.

    The hotel rooms have a paler palette reflective of the hotel’s beach location with off-white walls and chair railing in soft blue and green tones.

    Tourists hotel in The Berkshires takes cues from classic American motor lodges

    Continuing the relaxed, residential aesthetic is a lounge area with couches, pouffes, indoor plants, chairs, woven roller shades and woven cane dining chairs. Colourful fabrics enliven the space with its stone floors, while window trim is teal.

    The sitting area joins the hotel restaurant Nomi Park, which has bolder colours like red-tiled walls, burnt orange leather banquettes, a bar clad in light blue tiles and dining benches upholstered in a cheetah print.
    The wood dining chairs in dark blue are made locally by O & G Studio that is one of the emerging studios based in Rhode Island.

    Art by more local artists rounds out the interiors, including a piece in the restaurant by Mea Duke and a mural outside in the patio near the swimming pool by Sean Spellman. Others artists whose work is displayed are Catherine Druken, Jenn Shore, Jenny Brown and Liz Kelley.

    In addition to the Wayfinder hotel, other boutique accommodations in small towns and rural areas of the Northeastern United States are Tourists hotel in Massachusetts’ Berkshires region, Scribner’s Catskill Lodge, Sound View on Long Island and Troutbeck hotel by Champalimaud.
    Photography is by Read McKendree.

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  • White stucco Casa Mami by Working Holiday Studio contrasts California desert landscape

    Los Angeles design firm Working Holiday Studio has transformed a property in the California desert into a shoppable holiday home that “stands out” against its desolate landscape Casa Mami is located in Pioneertown, California, an unincorporated community outside of Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California.
    After visiting the area Carlos Naude and Whitney Brown of Working Holiday Studio wanted to purchase a house of their own to spend holidays in and to rent out to overnight guests.

    The 92-square-metre stucco house has an adobe-style construction and is situated on five acres (1.6 hectares) overlooking the barren desert landscape.

    To make the tiny building “stand out” against its surroundings a black portico contrasts the updated white exterior and light-coloured gravel around the property juxtaposes the sandy ground.

    “Most houses around the desert in that area try to blend in with the environment through earthy and brown tones, we wanted the opposite, we wanted our house to stand out which is why we chose to surround the house with white gravel to create a separation between the desert ground and house and painted it white and black, which not only made it really stand out but also brought a Mediterranean feel to it which is a good contrast to the dry hot desert,” Naude told Dezeen.

    For the interiors, the designers took cues from Scandinavian and Japanese design styles. This was coupled with bright colours found in work by Mexican architect Luis Barragán and a mix of pattern and shape used by French interior designer Jacques Granges and British designer Terence Conran.

    “I would say that we borrowed Luis Barragán’s use of colour – like the monochromatic yellow hallway, Jacques Grange’s ability to mix styles – between Scandinavian and Japanese, and Terence Conran’s incorporation of playful shapes and silhouettes,” he added.

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    Beige walls are paired with white moulding and painted grey floors throughout the house. In the kitchen the cabinets and drawers are punctured with a tiny hole to form a handle instead of with a traditional metal knob.

    A set of translucent glass doors with black trim is situated between the open-plan kitchen and living space frames the desert landscape, which is speckled with vegetation. Another pair is located in the master bedroom furnished with two semicircular nightstands and black light fixtures.

    In the living there is blue couch with rounded cushions and a circular coffee table topped with a terrazzo surface. The furnishings face a white, sphere-shaped fireplace installed to heat the tiny home.

    Photograph is by Candida Wohlgemuth
    The studio worked with over 30 brands to decorate the space with furniture, appliances and houseware items that guests can purchase online, forming part a new trend to design “shoppable stays”.
    Others include a holiday house in Maine designed by An Aesthetic Pursuit to showcase its new furniture collection and a rental property in Long Island Studio Robert McKinley has decorated to double as a showroom.

    Other details of Casa Mami are a hallway with bright yellow walls, decorative potted plants and an outdoor patio nestled into a corner of the structure.
    It is also powered by solar panels and a hauled water system, so the homeowners and guests are more conscious about their energy and water usage.

    Casa Mami has been longlisted in the hotel and short stay interior project category of Dezeen Awards 2020, with shortlists set to be announced at the start of September.
    Working Holiday Studio is a Los Angeles design studio led by husband and wife duo Carlos Naude and Whitney Brown. It worked with Francesca de la Fuente on the renovation of The Ruby Street co-working space in Los Angeles.
    Photography is by Carlos Naude, unless noted otherwise.

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  • OMA designs glass volume to top Tiffany & Co's New York flagship store

    OMA New York, led by Shohei Shigematsu, has unveiled its design for a glass addition to top the historic Tiffany & Co store on Fifth Avenue in New York City.The project involves the preservation of the jewellery brand’s 80-year old flagship location, a renovation of its ground floor and the construction of a rectangular glass volume that will span three storeys, adding space for hosting exhibitions and events.
    Built in 1940 by Cross & Cross, the existing limestone facade of the Tiffany & Co building is marked by its grid of windows and scalloped edges. In 1980 an upper volume was added to the building to house offices, which will be demolished and replaced by the new glass structure as part of this latest renovation by OMA.

    “Tiffany’s Fifth Avenue Flagship is more than a retail space, it is a destination with a public dimension,” said OMA Partner Shohei Shigematsu. “The new addition is informed by programmatic needs of the evolving brand – a gathering place that acts as a contemporary counterpart to the iconic ground level space and its activities.”

    “The floating volume over an existing terrace provides a clear visual cue to a vertical journey of diverse experiences throughout the building,” he added.
    OMA’s design plans to form the new volume using two stacked glass structures. The lower one will comprise a recessed box covered with glass windows, while the upper portion will be wrapped with slumped glass walls modelled after the building’s decorative parapet.

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    The ridged glass requires minimal vertical support and has a reflective surface designed for viewing the city from the interiors while offering privacy looking in from the exterior.
    An outdoor patio for hosting events surrounds the lower, two-storey volume. The existing space is furnished with tables and plants that overlook Fifth Avenue and on to Central Park. Its double height walls are wrapped with smooth glass panes and vertical silver frames to tie the two volumes together.
    “The two spaces of the upper volume that make up the new addition is a moment of clear but complementary contrast to the original flagship,” the studio added. “It is a symbolic ending to the building that reflects an evolved luxury experience that is more a journey than a destination.”

    The project is currently under construction and is expected to complete in Spring 2022.
    Shigematsu leads OMA New York with fellow partner Jason Long. The outpost is intended to function independently from the studio’s international offices, including Rotterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Doha and Australia, as part of an initiative of founder Rem Koolhaas.
    Last year the studio installed a multicoloured escalator inside the renovated Saks Fifth Avenue department store.
    Other recent projects by the New York office include a plan for the 11th Street Bridge Park in Washington DC and a series of galleries inside Gio Ponti’s Denver Art Museum.

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