Lever House Restaurant
New York City
Groupe Marc Newson

Marc Newson inserts a stylish, futuristic fifties restaurant to the landmark Lever House

By Cynthia Davidson

© Sebastian Saldivar

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

The value of the Lever House as a Modern icon on New York’s Park Avenue was recognized when the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building a landmark in 1983, even though the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill design was only 31 years old (hardly an antique). Appropriately, by its 50th anniversary in 2002, the building was nearing complete restoration and rehabilitation [RECORD, March 2003, page 122], but bringing it back to life required more than new lobby furniture and curtain wall. A critical issue for lease-holder RFR was to animate the ground-floor space formerly occupied by a conference room and Lever Brothers company store.

Enter New York restaurateurs John McDonald and Josh Pickard, who opened the Lever House Restaurant in August. The available 6,500-square-foot space is actually subterranean and windowless but accessible directly from 53rd Street on the south side of the building. The frontage available for establishing the restaurant’s identity is minimal, and landmark laws prevent excessive signage on the building. Then designer Marc Newson came on board, an Australian (living in Paris) with a reputation for things curvilinear—bikes, chairs, airplane interiors, the “stuff that surrounds you”—with a retro Modern aesthetic that Wallpaper magazine has made so fashionable.

In less than three years, Newson concocted a pod of hexagons and curved surfaces that is both retro (fitting for a 1950s mothership) and very now. Working with in-house consulting architect Sébastien Segers, he created windows in the windowless space by lining one side of the room with large curved openings that resemble the windows in passenger trains. Diners step through them to sit at curving banquettes and look back at the crowd on the floor 6 inches—but feeling much farther—below. A large opening in the wall at the far end spans nearly the width of the room, framing a private, 22-seat dining room. This window is fitted with sliding sheets of clear glass that when closed provide acoustic, but not visual, privacy; hence diners here are always onstage, a twist on the idea of dinner theater.

At the bar and in the dining room, Newson uses banal materials with a high-style sensibility. The lightness of these materials and the curves Newson introduces to the room are highlighted by a completely black, orthogonal entry off 53rd Street, where coats are checked, and at the back, a completely black corridor leading to all-black restrooms (fixtures and all). The blackout look hides the damage that occurs with intensive use of the spaces, but more important, the darkness heightens one’s sense of passage into the light, central space. The honeycomb of hexagons underfoot on the carpet, overhead in the coffered ceiling and private dining room lighting, as well as behind the bar, simply add geometric amusement for the eye.

See the December 2003 issue of Architectural Record for full article.

Location:
New York City

Gross square footage:
5,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$5 million

Owner:
Joshua Pickard, John McDonald, Robert Nagle, Aby Rosen

Interior design:
Groupe Marc Newson Ltd
69 rue des Gravilliers
75003 Paris France
+33 (0) 1 4478 8730 t
+33 (0) 1 4478 8739 f
www.marc-newson.com