Snaps

Staff -- Interior Design, 5/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Very VIP

Ordinary mortals might wait weeks for a table—our 300 guests breezed right into the main dining room at Buddakan, Interior Design Hall of Famer Christian Liaigre's New York restaurant, featured in our April issue. Everyone got to taste edamame dumplings and admire the hand-carved oak boiserie and chandeliers as well as taking home a new friend, a miniature Chinese soldier or horse.

1. D.B. Kim, vice president of design for Westin Hotels & Resorts.

2. Denyse Schmidt, quilt designer, and Frank Pontes, Ted Boerner's president.

3. Interior Design Hall of Fame member Laura Bohn and Parallel Design principal Ali Tayar.

4. Hall of Famer Richard Gluckman.

5. Interior Design's editor in chief, Cindy Allen, and Hall of Famer Calvin Tsao.

6. Gabellini Sheppard Associates writer-researcher Gideon Shapiro and designer Kentaro Ishihara with Hall of Famer Michael Gabellini and friend Patricia Ficalora.

7. Hall of Famer Clodagh.

8. Fashion designer Yeohlee Teng.

9. Tocar founding partners Christina Sullivan and Susan Bednar Long.

10. Shamir Shah, principal of his namesake firm.

11. Abbe Weinerman, facilities director for Coty Prestige, and Mitchell Feinberg, senior facilities director for Coach.

12. Mary Douglas Drysdale, president of her namesake firm.

13. Archlab Studio principals and cofounders Antonio Pio Saracino and Steve Blatz.

14. Christian Liaigre's 30-arm, hand-carved oak chandeliers.

15. Miniature replicas of Chinese terra-cotta soldiers and horses, waiting to be whisked away to stylish new homes.