Shop TalkAlan Tanksley is one of America’s leading practitioners of residential design, detailed interior space planning, and custom furniture and fixture design. An expert colorist, Tanksley makes every interior space both sophisticated and relaxing. Working relationships with such leading architects as Maya Lin, James Dayton, Robert Orr and Harry Elson has enabled his firm to realize a wide range of architectural renovations. In addition to residential design, the firm also does hospitality and commercial design, and has worked closely on a number of projects with developers such as National Resources and Alchemy. alantanksley.com Brooklynite Frida Kamau was born in Kenya and has lived in Oaxaco, Mexico, and London. She is a true multi-hyphenate who studied Fine Art at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), and designs interiors, gardens, event spaces, and does live installations for events. She is also the founder of Soko Africanus, a curated emporium focused on importing textiles, home accessories, jewelry, and art from her native Africa, made with natural and upcycled materials and traditional techniques. fridakamau.com Daun Curry Since starting her eponymous firm in 2009, Daun Curry’s projects have ranged from luxurious loft-like penthouses in New York City and Las Vegas, to season-ready Hamptons homes, and beach-side getaways in California—each spelling a narrative rich in layers and nuances. While Curry is known for incorporating unique finishes, textures, and materials that enhance the delicate balance between shapes, color, light, and shade, the clients’ history and lifestyle remains the impetus for each design. dauncurry.comView
Sizzle ReelThe streamlined kitchen is both sleek and functional. GAGGENAU X DAVID MONTALBA Architect David Montalba designed his California home to be open and airy, with interconnected spaces. “We enjoy being connected to the (kitchen) space. We like to be close together,” the architect says. “Simplicity is hard to achieve. Having a kitchen that looks this simple, but has everything you need is really rewarding.” The kitchen is complete with a Gaggenau oven, warming drawers, and wine climate cabinet. The family’s favorite feature? Montalba says, “The warming drawer! It is the most used. No one initially wanted it except for Amy, but it’s really practical. And those 24-inch ovens look small, but we cook Thanksgiving dinner in them. It’s designed thoughtfully so the backend is quite large. It looks like it’s driven only by aesthetics and then you realize it’s truly functional.” FISHER & PAYKEL X MICHAEL SCELFO Award-winning chef Michael Scelfo, whose Boston hotspots include Alden & Harlow, Waypoint, and The Longfellow Bar at Alden & Harlow, is passionate about creating a medium in which people can connect, especially in his home kitchen. His philosophy is aligned with Fisher & Paykel’s ethos of the home kitchen as a social space. Scelfo enjoys sharing generational recipes and infusing new ideas into the dishes he prepares. Food, for Scelfo, is a conduit through taste in the present and memory in the past. Throughout his career, Scelfo has taken time to examine his personal culinary perspective, finding answers and inspiration in his own […]View
Awards Season1st Place “Soft Modernism,” by Plan Architecture Plan Interiors. Challenge Accepted Artistic Tile’s Quarantine Days Design From Home Challenge gave designers a fun, safe way to hone design skills and get the creative juices flowing during lockdown, using digital resources and their own ingenuity. The contest generated some ingenious and inspiring designs. 2nd Place “Casa Verde,” by Born on Bowery | Luba Libarikian 3rd Place “Spatial Luxury,” by Ronald Nemec, Ronald Nemec Architect PC Design Vision Fantini USA’s 2020 People’s Choice Awards was an image-based competition on Instagram, where North American architects and designers submitted their most unique designs. The competition garnered 56 entries, and followers voted for their favorite projects. The brand’s third annual Design awards were also announced, with project submissions inspired by water. 1st Place “70s by the Sea,” by Anne-Marie Barton, AMB Design 2nd Place “Millennium Park Residence,” by Emil García, Centaur Interiors. 2019 Design Awards Future category winner, a Central Park West apartment designed by Spivak Architects.View
WorldviewA design sketch of a current project in Brooklyn PERSONAL STYLE Anishka: Call me a cliche but less is definitely more for me. I prefer a spartan aesthetic that celebrates the architecture and materiality of space. Objects should serve a purpose and preferably a multifunctional one. Trends are not important, but old things or one-of-a-kind artisanal things feel right. If the architecture is great—wide open spaces, floor to ceiling windows and doors, and moveable walls—I am happy to not have much else Niya: I like my environments to be layered—infused with art, history, and culturally symbolic objects. I definitely lean towards minimal furnishings and aesthetics, but art and artisanal objects must have a place. TOP 3 White House, Jamaica: This large, ground-up beach front property utilized every skill set we had and at the same time, taught us a lot about location specificity, working with local trades and artisans, honoring authenticity, and respecting the environment. We developed a lot of furnishings for this project, all influenced by the location, some produced locally, others in Indonesia. TriBeCa, NYC: We designed quite a number of furnishings for this project, which were all produced in Brooklyn. We also sourced mostly US-based artisans and there are some overseas artisans in the home as well. We mixed in a few vintage pieces. We also designed the roof terrace and garden. Overall, the penthouse has a very serene vibe and is more aligned with our personal aesthetic. East Hamptons, NY: We love working with repeat clients. […]View
A Moveable FeastPaintings and sculpture by Ana Mercedes Hoyos dominate the living area, including four framed works which Lewis hung from the ceiling, and the oversized bronze fruit bowl sitting on a sculptural wood stool. Views of the study at the far end showcase a photographic work by Thomas Ruff. Written by Nicole Haddad Photography by Pratya Jankong It’s not often designers get to create a livable loggia in a postmodern building near the United Nations. “I was tasked with designing a space that would act as a container for their art,” says Leyden Lewis. A trained architect, artist, and interior designer, Lewis was far from intimidated, but to transform the space he first had to bring it into the 21st century. The 1,400-square-foot apartment was stuck in the 80s, with an aesthetic Lewis described as “peach hell.” While the clients, permanently based in Cape Town, South Africa, intended for the apartment to function as a pied-à-terre— they are big New York theater buffs—they wanted to feel at home with their art. “They have a very nostalgic view of SoHo in its art heyday so we echoed that feeling of living in a SoHo loft in the design,” says Lewis. Carpeted platforms and an outdated brown marble were immediately ripped out. The walls were painted white in almost all cases and the floors were outfitted with rustic, herringbone-patterned reclaimed oak. Lewis designed each wall to be able to hang art—closet doors in the main bedroom were even adjusted to slide, allowing for […]View
Island TimeIn a kitchen overlooking Conscience Bay on Long Island, designer Melissa Fenigstein of New Age Interiors created a continent of an island for a family that needed a lot of space for healthy cooking, baking, and entertaining. The 10-foot- by-7-foot island includes a lift for a stand mixer and an indoor herb garden. Appliances by Sub-Zero and Thermador, and a backsplash by Artistic Tile complete the picture. Written by Deborah L. Martin Photography by Ric Marder If the kitchen is the center of the home, than the kitchen island is its epicenter. Island time—once a call for tropical-colored drinks with tiny parasols, soft white sand, and turquoise water lapping at a chaise lounge—is reinterpreted for this moment in time. Consider the kitchen island: Part meal prep station, part work station, part family hub, a place to put aside the daily grind and take a coffee break, the kitchen island is the new office water cooler. It can also quickly become a repository for the daily detritus—keys, phone chargers, mail—all of the necessities of modern life eventually find their way here. This standard design feature has evolved along with the technology and tools that make our kitchens more accessible, more useful, and more beautiful. Flush countertop ranges, sliding cutting board surfaces, hidden controls and smooth cabinetry—even the most traditional styles fit the modern lifestyle. Our portfolio of inspiration includes everything from an uber-modern cantilevered centerpiece to a breakfast bar for a small urban space. No matter the floorplan, square footage, or […]View
Reviving BeautyThe meticulously restored lobby of 108 Leonard has double-height ceilings, a Blue de Savoie chevron- patterned floor with contrasting dark stone borders. Up the dual staircases, the mezzanine level has many intimate seating areas. Written by Thomas Connors Photography by Evan Joseph A building is a living thing. It may not have a beating heart, but like any of us, it’s never the same from one decade to the next. In New York, the Jefferson Market Courthouse turned a page to become a branch of the New York Public Library and the old Astor Library on Lafayette Street got a second act as the The Public Theater. And countless commercial and industrial buildings have found new life as residential properties. One of the latest to undergo this metamorphosis is 108 Leonard in TriBeCa, a richly worked, Renaissance Revival beauty by McKim, Mead & White. Completed in 1898 for the New York Life Insurance Company and long known as The Clock Tower Building for the massive four-sided timepiece that topped it, the block-long structure is now a prime asset of the Elad Group, whose portfolio includes The Carlyle Residences in Los Angeles and 22 Central Park South. To revive the building and transform it into 150 luxury residences, Elad turned to veteran designer Jeffrey Beers, who had fashioned interiors for One West End, the company’s condominium tower at Riverside Center on the Upper West Side. An avowed modernist—whose projects range from Manhattan’s 40/40 Club to the Fontainebleau Miami Beach—Beers did not […]View
Miami HeatWritten by Kaitlin Clark Photography by Lifestyle Production Group At first glance, it would seem that the modern masterpiece on Palm Island is a wonderfully surprising study in the attraction of opposites. Balancing the duality of the exterior’s strong, heavy industrial lines made of Vena Grigio stone with a warm and relaxing glamour interior, situated on a lush compound with tropical botanicals and thickets of palms, is a dizzying feat—and a true passion project for designers Osirys Mendez and Sabrina Vela. “We did everything from inception to completion,” says Mendez, the co-founder of design firm Mendez Vela, in collaboration with renowned architecture firm Choeff Levy Fischman, one of the early pioneers of modern architecture in Miami Beach in the ‘50s. “We sourced the land, and we bought all of the finishes. Everything from the drywall out, including architectural lighting, decorative lighting, all of the panels, kitchens, bars, appliances, bathrooms.” Mendez Vela had worked with the homeowner, a British expat, on a bachelor pad in the Mondrian Miami Beach, but now with a wife and two small children, he was seeking “modern, but more warm with a tropical feeling” for his family, says Mendez, with a focus on easy entertaining and celebrating the island’s rich natural beauty. “Everything was designed around the views.” One of the home’s design hallmarks is the pairing of organic, earthy materials with ultra modern sophisticated finishes, accentuated with playful metallic touches. From the macro design decisions to the micro, the level of attention and detail is […]View
Haute WaterIn Zaha Hadid’s architectural masterpiece, 1000 Museum, in Miami, B&B Italia’s chic, high-design furniture surrounds the sky-high lap pool with views of the city. Mirto chaise lounges designed by Antonio Citterio, recline gracefully at one end of the pool. Along the side, Bay’s enveloping braided volumes create a place to nest in style. Written by Deborah L. Martin Take a break from the faces looking back at you in “gallery view,” and immerse yourself in inspirational spaces that provide the ultimate in stress relief. Here in the new normal, home gyms, spa baths, hot tubs, and pools are suddenly critical to surviving long days of remote learning, tele- conferences, virtual backgrounds, and webinars. While we might still be nervous about heading to the day spa for a hot stone massage, a steam shower at home just might do the trick. If going to the gym still feels fraught with risk, innovative ideas for a home exercise space might be something to contemplate. If you are tired of “signing in” to get your workout fix, an analog experience might be just the ticket. Weight benches and racks can be incorporated into a spa bath without sacrificing style or function. And if plunging into a pool for a refreshing swim is more your speed, you have only to find a location like that of Zaha Hadid’s elegant, curvilinear 1000 Musuem with its aquatic center featuring a double-height indoor pool and 60th floor sky lounge. When the laps are done, relax poolside with […]View
La Dolce VitaWritten by Kaitlin Clark At the end of World War II, brothers Valter and Elvino Scavolini received a small loan from the Italian government to start a design company in their hometown of Pesaro, and it was only natural to focus on the spiritual lifeline of Italian culture: la cucina. Since those early days, Scavolini has become the godfather of modern kitchen manufacturing. Ten years ago, when they decided to expand to the United States, they found an audience hungry for modern design. “For the way we live in Italy, cooking is key in our lives and eating is a sacred ritual,” says Daniele Busca, the New York City Showroom Manager and Creative Director. “The kitchen is really the heart of the house. The tradition is to have the table in the kitchen and set it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is a sanctuary where the family gets together to eat, drink, fight. We live everyday life in the kitchen.” Quickly earning a stellar reputation for reliable, functional and sleek kitchen cabinetry, the modest business blossomed into one of Italy’s largest kitchen manufacturers, with an eye toward innovation and design, a mind for expansion, and a heart filled with nostalgia. “They were really ahead of their time, not only with production, but how they keep the impact as low as possible on the environment,” says Busca. “This started more than 20 years ago, before anyone was thinking this way.” Entering the American market was a natural next step to […]View
Source Material“People will stare. Make it worth their while.” —Harry Winston “Design is thinking made visual.” —Saul BassView