Nicole Farhi Boutique and Restaurant
New York, New York

Located on East 60th Street, the Nicole Farhi Boutique and Restaurant, which opened in fall 1999, occupies three levels of a 1901 landmark structure. The exterior of the building, most recently home to the famous Copacabana nightclub, was restored with new honed Indiana limestone and Deer Isle granite to match the original stone tracery. Entry to the boutique begins with passage across a bridge of water-white glass and American walnut wood. The bridge spans the 26-foot-high front atrium, exposing and defining the interior architectural plaster facade. Flanked by this and another double-height atrium at the rear, the floor of the women’s boutique is suspended within the space. This floating platform is expressed through the articulation of flooring materials composed of American walnut and honed New York bluestone. The bluestone establishes a field within a wood border, which visually connects the floor to the blue-plaster ceiling of the restaurant below. The space of the women’s collection is articulated by four large elliptical plaster columns, which continue to the floor below. The women’s fitting rooms, veiled by walnut and rice paper shoji screens, provide a translucent, luminous background.

A second stair provides access to the home and men’s collections. From this point one may enter the lowered floor of the restaurant by floating wooden steps. The 4,000 square-foot restaurant is placed between the two double-height atrium spaces. A 30-foot-long luminescent Estremoz bar table punctuates the room. The main focus of the restaurant is the illuminated water-white glass cube floating on a raised bluestone plinth that houses the open kitchen. Custom fixtures designed by GS­including cantilevered shelves and abacus­inspired tables­display merchandise throughout the space.