September 2015 - LUXE MAGAZINE - Real Estate | Design

Where are you going to eat in New York?

People have been waiting for this moment all spring: the opening of new restaurants on the New York scene. The trend is very French, taking inspiration from both haute cuisine and regional specialities. The chefs in greatest vogue are taking advantage of the good weather to suggest new concepts in establishments just waiting to be discovered. It makes your mouth water. Here are some new addresses that gourmets will definitely be adding to their dining schedules!

Chevalier

Partners Tony Ingrao and Stephen Sills designed an ultrachic French brasserie where linen and leather take on a contemporary look. The restaurant in the Baccarat Hotel in Midtown will have two chefs to serve you better: chef Shea Gallante (one Michelin star) and chef Charles Masson from La Grenouille, one of the best-loved restaurants in Manhattan. At Chevalier, the chef’s table has 20 places, exclusively reserved for those who put themselves completely into the chefs’ hands. The restaurant has undertaken to transform French cuisine in New York. No doubt about it! Reservations necessary.

20 W. 53rd St.

JAMS

A hotel on Central Park has its Jams, its ultrachic restaurant. Here we may taste, for the first time on the East Coast, the cuisine of Jonathan Waxman. Inspired by the success of the culinary delights he concocted in California, Waxman is introducing his local organic cuisine to New York. Jams’ menu marries fresh tastes from California and the Italian Riviera with French savoir-faire. Waxman was trained by the formidable Alice Waters, and her strict regimen shows.

Untitled on the High Line

On May 1, Danny Meyer is opening THE restaurant of the new Whitney Museum in the Meatpacking District. Renzo Piano’s lovely architecture lends distinction to this culinary shrine. Head chef Michael Anthony and chef Suzanne Cupps, whose talents are well known to gourmets, collaborated to create a menu stuffed with exquisite flavours and worthy of this new showplace of art. The Studio Café, reserved for museum visitors, offers an incomparable view over the city. The terrace overlooks the lovely green High Line Park promenade, the Hudson River and the city beyond.

99 Gansevoort St.

Rebelle

The team from Pearl & Ash, the essential wine bar and trendy restaurant on the Lower East Side, is preparing a new site that promises to be the talk of the town. Patrick Cappiello, Alessandro Zampedri and Branden McRill are taking over the neighbouring R Bar Space to create Rebelle. Chef Daniel Eddy will be contributing his talent and first class Parisian experience. In Paris, you often have to wait a few months instead of a few days for a table at Spring, so you’d better make your reservations for Rebelle right away!

218 Bowery

The Modern

Its name is still a big secret, but chef Gabriel Kreuther’s new restaurant is on its way and they tell us it will be ready this spring. It’s one of the culinary experiences that we’re waiting for impatiently. The Modern, the restaurant in the Museum of Modern Art that he directed for 10 years, is one of the most sophisticated contemporary kitchens in New York. The new establishment’s menu draws its inspiration from the region of Alsace. It promises fine results in a high design setting by Glen Coben located in the Grace Building across from Bryant Park.

1114 Avenue of the Americas

Text: Barbara Stehle

New York, an artistic town

The New York arts scene is varied, extravagant and sophisticated. From Manhattan to Brooklyn, there are plenty of places to go. This spring brings major contemporary art exhibitions, not to mention exhibitions looking at cultures that are not represented nearly enough. Here at a glance are the major events of the spring season!

Guggenheim Museum

On Kawara – Silence is undoubtedly the concept event of the year: a retrospective exhibition of works by the Japonese artist, long a New York resident, who died last summer, is spread out through the Guggenheim’s spectacular architecture. It’s one of the great events currently under way on New York’s arts scene. The exhibition is drawing an international crowd of art lovers. Kawara’s work is both elegant and humanist, but it isn’t easy to understand. Take you time. The experience will be enriching.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan has reorganized its modern art collections. The thematic route is marked by masterpieces from Europe and North America. The Plains Indians Artists of Earth and Sky presents rare and unexpected objects, some of which date from 100 B.C., of both aesthetic and anthropological value, paying sincere homage to the powerful aura of Native culture on the North American plains.

Whitney Museum

Mark your calendars! The Whitney will be inaugurated on May 1, 2015. Visitors are awaiting with equal impatience the chance to discover the museum’s architecture, by Renzo Piano, and a first look at the installation of its collections and the major opening exhibition. With an unmatched view over the Hudson River, a gourmet restaurant and a trendy café, the Whitney promises to be THE fine weather spot in Manhattan.

Brooklyn Museum of Art

Few artists are as colourful as Kehinde Wiley. The exhibition Kehinde Wiley a New Republic radiates extraordinary energy that leaves no one indifferent. Wiley, one of the great painters of figural and pictorial theatricality, reinvents traditional historical and portrait painting with humour and grandeur in compositions starring young Blacks. Two decades of work by this darling of the galleries are now on show at the Museum.

New York Botanical Garden

Mexican artist Frida Kahlo cultivated her garden. The exhibition Frida Kahlo, Art, Garden, Life, which starts this spring and continues all summer, only shows a few of her works, but what works they are indeed! It is also an opportunity to discover the gorgeous Botanical Garden in the Bronx. It’s a spring stroll off the beaten track.

Frieze Art Fair

The fair, which comes from London, brings together works from the greatest European galleries, as well as few others, carefully selected. The booths show all the latest things at exorbitant prices. Everybody who is anybody will be there, for cocktails and to look around, on Randall’s Island May 14 to 17. The elite crowd will definitely be found on the ferries from Manhattan that make the crossing in a few minutes.

Artist Space Exhibitions

Artist Space, a chic Soho loft, is still inhabited by experimental art. Upstairs, where all the trendy New Yorkers go, they’re showing Hito Steyerl, feminist artist, and her powerful videos. Artist Space is very trendy, and so is its philosophy. A visit will lead you underneath the light of suspended screens to view astonishing works. This exhibition will take you out of your daily grind.

Petzel Gallery

Uptown, one of the galleries on the Upper East Side, is showcasing German artist Charline von Heyl. Her paintings translate a pictorial discourse that is both personal and formalistic. Questions of painting asked with the intelligence of the paintbrush and the vivacity of a contemporary spirit. Of the three Petzel galleries in Manhattan, this is the one not to miss.

Text: Diane Stehle

An elegant, luminescent and innovative contemporary residence by Ulises Liceaga

Architect Ulises Liceaga of the Fractal Architecture agency has created an elegant, luminescent and innovative contemporary residence in the Gramercy Park neighbourhood. The result: he is the winner of the Ceramics d’Italie prize in the residential category.

Gramercy

Gramercy, on Manhattan’s East Side, is legendary for its private park, to which only surrounding residents have access. Once upon a time, you needed a gold key to enter. Today, Karl Lagerfeld and Uma Thurman have discreet, ordinary keys to enter the most exclusive garden in Manhattan.

Gramercy has its own particular style, somewhat like that of West End London. In this exclusive old neighbourhood, lots of properties are being renovated. The grand Gramercy Hotel dates from the 1920s, but its interior décor was redone in 2006 by painter and cinematographer Julian Schnabel. Every iota of Gramercy’s charm is summed up in this very 19th century architectural complex, where designers are working to adapt its interiors to a contemporary lifestyle. For an architect, the challenge is to respect this atmosphere while leaving one’s own artistic stamp.

Ulises Liceaga’s project

Ulises Liceaga’s house stands out from others in Gramercy. What a gem! The ingenuity of the project taken on by his agency, Fractal Architecture, is found in the solutions used to reconvert a townhouse dating from 1848. Initially the triplex and three lofts one atop the other didn’t meet their new owners’ requirements. The spaces revealed an outmoded lifestyle. They were open, yes, but dark, and the spirit of the place seemed somewhat stifled.

With the intention of making the home more spacious, Liceaga made the three lofts into a two-storey open-plan apartment with lovely high ceilings, and added a third storey on the roof. In other words, he created a triplex on top of the existing triplex. The building’s structure had to be reinforced so that they could open up the rear façade and transform it into a glass wall.

Like being outside

Translucidity has become a major theme. The lovely glasswork on the ground floor is now overlooked by a glass terrace opening on a glass wall. This interplay of openness and transparency continues with the second terrace, this one on the roof. The view is splendid and residents have an opportunity to take advantage of being outside – fine additions to the house’s charm. Life is lived in luxurious comfort, hidden from passers-by but just like being outside.

From the street, nothing gives away the transformations that the building has undergone or its newfound transparency. They only appear when you’ve crossed the threshold. Natural light circulates freely through the home with nothing to interrupt it. This freedom makes the space seem even more open. The evening lighting was designed by Ingo Maurer: a multitude of LEDs were set into the glass wall like snowflakes. Their sparkle screens against spectators from outside. This way the residents take advantage of outdoor light during the day and in the evening the wall blurs its transparency for more security.

The living room represents the building’s open spirit. The double-height ceiling provides spectacular volume. The contemporary décor is both sophisticated and warm. Works by artist Emilio Garcia, a childhood friend of the architect, bring a playful, joyous touch. The same magic shines in the bedrooms and other private spaces. It feels like an absolutely delicious place to live. Ulises Liceaga has given this house in Gramercy both its chic and its groove back. Keep an eye on him…