New York Contemporary: Grade Architecture and Interiors

by Thomas Hickey and Edward YedidNew York: Monacelli Press, $60256 pages, 190 color illustrations

Few design firms name their hometown in their title, but if it’s New York, why not? Grade New York was founded in 2004 by architect Thomas Hickey, a graduate of Columbia University and a teacher at Barnard and Parsons School of Design, and Edward Yedid, a graduate of New York University, Hickey’s student at Parsons, and an employee of Noel Jeffrey. Their work shown here is a deluxe tour of Manhattan

apartments: one in Norman Foster’s tower in Chelsea; another in Herzog & de Meuron’s 56 Leonard Street; a Tribeca loft in a

former bookbindery; an East 57th Street penthouse; and Yedid’s own Madison Avenue duplex.

In every case, Grade New York’s touch is spare and elegant with a soft, subtle palette, Aubusson carpets, and wall panels of mahogany and suede. This quiet background welcomes dramatic and colorful art by Josef Albers, Dan Flavin, Ed Ruscha, Antoni Tàpies, Jean Dubuffet, Louise Nevelson, Fernando Botero, Kiki Smith, and Henri Matisse. Lighting is by Isamu Noguchi, Jean Royère, Frank Gehry, Ingo Maurer, and Richard Meier. Furniture choices include classics by Eero Saarinen, Hans Wegner, Warren Platner, Afra and Tobia Scarpa, Charlotte Perriand, Poul Kjærholm, George Nakashima, Christian Liaigre, et al., but these are often spiked with quirkier pieces by Piero Fornasetti and François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne or with oddball

objects like an antique birthing chair. The results provide the serenity that big city living demands, but with an occasional shock of electricity: New York at its best.

“We are modernists with a deep respect for history”

Rooms with a History: Interiors and their Inspirations

by Ashley HicksNew York: Rizzoli International Publications, $60256 pages, 335 color illustrations

A porphyry urn from Versailles, silvered faucets from Beaulieu-sur-Mer, marble pavement from the Pantheon, chunks of raw malachite, Lord Curzon’s bathtub, a Regency chimney-piece the author designed for his father (the great David Hicks, in case you didn’t know). These are just a few tasty tidbits from a lavish smorgasbord divided into a dozen courses such as History, Jewels, Layers, and Texture.

They are intermingled with newer but similarly rich Ashley Hicks interiors for himself and his clients. In many cases, were it not for the captions, it would be hard to distinguish between the historic and the recent, except that Hicks seems to have inherited his father’s bold hand with geometry and strong color, as amply demonstrated in the chapter on Color. The Flowers chapter shows real blooms as well as painted, printed, and carved ones. In Making we see things the author has crafted, such as “a coral-inspired console table that I carved from pine and gilded.” But perhaps the Faking chapter is most fun of all with a buffet of trompe-l’oeil effects, mirrors, false perspectives, marquetry, and

walls of false book spines, “the joy of both tricking the eye and having it tricked.”

Too much, you say? You yearn for something plain? Don’t be silly! You can’t enjoy a feast like this every day, although Hicks apparently can. As he explains, “I spent my childhood on patterned sheets.” And as his old friend and celebrated shoe designer Christian Louboutin writes of Hicks in the foreword, “His dedication to beauty remains intact.”

“Rooms should always hold memories”

The Story of Rockefeller Center

by Margaret Bourke-White and Cosmo-Sileo Whitefish, Montana: Literary Licensing, $1426 pages, 43 black-and-white illustrations

What They’re Reading...

books edited by Stanley Abercrombie

John CetraFounding principal of CetraRuddy Architecture

“We are currently working on the Rockefeller Group’s first residential tower in over four decades, Rose Hill, located in the old neighbhorhood of the same name in what’s now NoMad. The craft of intertwining art with architecture has been a profound influence on us as we designed the 45-story tower. This Amazon find, originally published as a pamphlet in 1939 and orchestrated with photography by renowned photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White, chronicles the design and construction of Rockefeller Center, the most important civic architectural ensemble in the U.S.

More than any modern complex I know, it incorporates art in all forms as essential to the architecture. Murals, glass, metalwork, and innovative graphics all add to an immersive experience. I am now collaborating with artists to create a beautiful and monumental lobby; details on the new facade reference ones on our client’s masterpiece; and we’ve focused on incorporating the grand proportions of buildings of the 20’s and 30’s into a forward-looking skyscraper.”

256 INTERIOR DESIGN SEPT.19

BOT

TOM

LEF

T: C

OURT

ESY

OF

CETR

ARU

DDY

ARC

HIT

ECTU

RE