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WORKac

WORKac

New York, NY

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Diane Von Furstenberg HQ

Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg’s headquarters has become  an urban icon in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. A new structure inserted behind three preserved historic facades, the six-story building brings together flagship retail with performance venues, offices for a staff of 300, a design studio and a private penthouse.

A single iconic staircase, cut as a diagonal shaft through the building, ties these spaces together. Part stair and part chandelier, the “stairdelier” also brings daylight down through the entire building. Along the stair’s length, light from a heliostat mirror refracts through some 3,000 Swarovski crystals suspended on (and structurally bracing) vertical steel cables that double as guardrails.

The stair coincides with a series of shared double-height voids, culminating in the faceted penthouse-studio on the building’s roof. Visible from the streets around, the penthouse registers the disjuncture between the new interior and the preserved facades below, while broadcasting the studio’s presence to the neighborhood.

 
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Status: Built
Location: New York, NY, US
Firm Role: Architect
Additional Credits: 2004-2007
Principals: Amale Andraos + Dan Wood
Project Team: Silvia Fuster, Eckart Graeve, Michael Chirigos with Alexandria Ålgård, Fred Awty, Benjamin Cadena, Tina Diep, Marc El Khouri, Rune Elsgart, Erin Hunt, Forrest Jesse, Brendan Kelly, Anna Kenoff, Martin Krogh, Kirsten Krogh, Christina Kwak, Martin Laursen, Christo Logan, Jacob Lund, Marc-Antoine Maillard, Mirza Mujezinovic, Dayoung Shin, Sylvanus Shaw, Andrew Sinclair, Elliet Spring, Dana Strasser, Queenie Tong, Judith Tse, Lamare Wimberly
Structural: GACE Consulting Engineers
MEP: Athwal & Associates
Lighting: Tillotson Design Associates
Landscape: Town and Gardens
Contractor: Americon
Code/Expediting: CCBS
Photos by: Elizabeth Felicella