How do young designers learn how to make great design? It’s a process of struggle, of mistakes (some brilliant, some not so), of miscommunication, and finally, at least sometimes, epiphany. In this issue, we focus on New York’s talented young garde and show the backstory behind their creations. Some of the challenges faced by these designers are structural (a precarious water tower), others psychological (how to keep Donna Karan and David Barton happy). And then there are those that have to do with the tricky pleasures of collaborations: See Lou Reed’s extremely patient furniture designer. Or Alexander Gorlin, who accepted what could well be an architect’s worst-nightmare job: designing Daniel Libeskind’s apartment. Gorlin, who is far too experienced to be considered a young designer, was nonetheless in this instance the junior architect; we talk to him and Libeskind about what they learned from their unusual project. Along the way, we also sought out one older designer, Albert Hadley, the interior decorator who introduced Modernism to his longtime partner Sister Parish, for his advice to the young: “As beautiful and fanciful as one might wish to be in this business,” he counsels, “it really is about real people and real lives and real situations.”
Assignment: Libeskind
BY CHRISTOPHER HAWTHORNE
Designing a loft for the ground-zero master planner and his wife, Nina, sounds like a terrifying prospect. A conversation between Daniel Libeskind and architect Alexander Gorlin.
Beyond the Pale
BY AMY LAROCCA
The dirty details behind the creation of an immaculate all-white 52nd-floor penthouse
Towering Ambition
BY MARC KRISTAL
How to wrest a water tower from the co-op board— and then renovate it without wrecking it
A Question of Taste
BY CARL SWANSON
Can an architect prevent his client from redoing an East Village basement in leopard print and fur?
The Diplomats
BY CARL SWANSON
Peter Marino taught Enrico Bonetti and Dominic Kozerski how to handle high-end clients like Donna Karan. Their new project: David BartonÂ’s fantasy re-creation of the 23rd Street Y.
Transformer
BY AMY LAROCCA
The pleasures and perils of designing furniture for Lou Reed
Dean of Decorators
BY CHRISTOPHER MASON
Albert Hadley offers advice to young designers (no more “beige rooms”)— and looks back at his own career
A Garde in the Making
Ten other young designers who are making their mark.