Freeze Frame

A closer take on the hottest solutions from January

Staff -- Interior Design, 1/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

1. The Great Divide

To demarcate perimeter offices for a financial-services firm in New York's landmark Lever House, David Chipperfield Architects and IA created a partition system of glass and walnut cabinetry. Millwork is aligned with mullions and stops short of window walls for minimal interference with the original architecture, to which both wood and glass are joined through slots in the ceiling. This clean yet efficacious solution also incorporates storage and office doors. "The Colors of Money," page 138.

2. Building Block

Renzo Piano drew inspiration from Pierre Chareau's Maison de Verre in choosing glass—13,000 oversize silvered blocks made in Italy by Vetroarredo—for the Hermès flagship in Tokyo. "Japanese cities are shifting entities, totally different by day and night. Glass has that instinctive, metamorphic quality," Piano says. The 11-story building reflects and refracts sunlight, becoming a luminous lantern by night. There were also seismic considerations: The blocks are suspended so they can actually move. "Hermès Heaven," page 160.

3. On the Table

After designing a mahogany wall element to thread through the interior of a Florida house, architect René Gonzalez created complementary custom furniture. The folding ocher-hued arm of an aluminum and glass breakfast table is delicately detailed with beveled edges for a jewellike quality (above, right). A cocktail table that features a mahogany base and an inset, laminated black glass top (right) was designed "to have the same dynamic feeling as the mahogany wall, like a flying saucer or an airborne Frisbee," says Gonzalez. "In Plane View," page 122.