Shaking off my rain soaked umbrella just inside a long corridor, I’m trusting instinct the entrance to Vitra’s new NYC showroom is somewhere down it. Adjacent to an around the clock busy Manhattan bridge and Canal street connector you’d never know it was there. A small wall plaque is the only sign you’re close. This corner of NYC’s Chinatown isn’t an obvious place you’d expect one of the leading designer furnishing brands to commit to a location. But with Vitra’s presence in NYC, it’s a perfect continuation of the brand’s unpredictable history in the Big Apple.
Vitra’s previous long time home in Manhattan was in the Meatpacking district and the original showroom on 9th Ave was established when the area was still a risky and gritty nightclub mecca. This was followed by a relocation a few blocks away to a raw former industrial space across from the Whitney Museum. The last publicly accessible location was a short-lived small showroom on Madison in what is now NYC main design showroom district.
At the middle of this corridor is a glass vestibule with access to an elevator and Vitra’s 3rd floor home. Once there, the main space opens up into a double height volume with the front wall of windows offering a panoramic view of the Manhattan Bridge. It’s impossible not to say wow.
The structure dates from the 1960s and was formerly a dim sum restaurant. The renovation transformed it into an airy gallery, but it’s not sterile and soulless. Equally remarkable is that with all the exposed concrete, steel and glass there’s little distraction from sound reverberation. The addition of long linear drapery to divide up the space is likely controlling the spread of ambient sound and making the interior really comfortable to be in.
The space is half gallery and half working office. For the press preview, it was just like a typical day with staff busy at their workstations. A wander around revealed several room vignettes created from new Vitra introductions mixed with vintage pieces from the sister brand Artek. The space already has an approachable, lived in feeling. Beyond the inclusion of some heritage furniture pieces, there’s a wall of original Alvar Aalto tiles from the former Kaufmann Conference Center at the UN.
Photos and Text: Dave Pinter
