National Treasure

Thom Filicia showcases America's best in a suite for VIPs at this year's World Expo in Aichi, Japan

Fred A. Bernstein -- Interior Design, 7/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Few designers pull a room together quicker than Thom Filicia, cohost of the Bravo channel's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" who transforms the houses of average Joes in a mere 48 hours. But a chic, comfortable, and richly American suite for VIPs in the U.S. pavilion at the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, Japan, in only 90 days? Even for Filicia, an established designer before the small screen beckoned, the request was daunting. Fortunately, he's as patriotic as he is efficient and signed on without hesitation. "America is a product I believe in," he says.

Each country gets its own prefab warehouse-style building that will be dismantled and recycled after the fair closes in September. And given the strong cultural and commercial relationship between America and Japan, it was critical for the U.S. pavilion to bear the stamp of serious high-level participation. This year's theme is Nature's Wisdom, a nod to environmentalism. So U.S. officials made the centerpiece of their building a theater showing film of an actor dressed like Benjamin Franklin speaking Japanese and extolling America's scientific achievements over the past 200 years.

Filicia's contribution, on a second level overlooking the theater, needed to combine history and glamour. So the dashing "design doctor," as he's known on "Queer Eye," chose to showcase a variety of authentically American styles. "I wasn't thinking 'Colonial Williamsburg,'" he says, "but I knew it had to be as culturally rich."

Initially, the space wasn't especially inspiring. It had an irregular shape, with doors to bathrooms and a catering kitchen occupying some of the most prominent wall space. And while the concrete-and-corrugated metal construction may be eco-friendly, it's far from beautiful: The HVAC systems hang from the ceiling, and windows are nearly nonexistent.

Architecture firm Meyer Davis Studio worked assiduously with Filicia, who faxed, phoned, and e-mailed from his office, hotel rooms, and everywhere else as he worked on the road for what he refers to simply as "the show." Some of his heady requests baffled the Japanese contractor. On his first visit to the site, for example, "the firm thought my drawings were wrong because the doors were 10 feet tall," Filicia recalls.

Still, he rose to the occasion. Compensating for the prefab roughness of the 5,000-square-foot mezzanine, he embraced industrial chic as a theme, and that decision allowed him to create the eclectic mix he had in mind. What emerged is part hunting lodge, part TriBeCa loft, and part grand 1930's hotel. Leather clads the floor, and it's luxuriously segmented into open-plan lounge and dining areas and an enclosed meeting room. Walls have a graphic quality thanks to sage-colored laths applied to sheetrock walls painted antique white. The extraordinarily high doors also feature 5-inch-wide frames of cerused ebonized oak and 18-inch-high baseboards.

Filicia knew he also needed something dramatic to screen off doors leading to bathrooms and the kitchen. He recruited sculptor Bryan Nash Gill to cut and arrange huge strips of a fallen sycamore tree from Connecticut. On-site the designer arranged the pieces into an artful divider whose look recalls both the work of Japanese-American furniture designer George Nakashima and California's redwood forests.

Natural mingles with natty everywhere: On one wall, there are bleached bucks' skulls; on another, a wall clock that looks as if it were excavated from an old art deco bank building. An antler chair made in Montana, for example, fits perfectly with a grand piano that signifies the height of urban sophistication.

The interior has already won raves from visiting dignitaries, including the expo's U.S. commissioner general and ambassador, Lisa Gable, a Republican from Virginia. "Thom created a living room where our most important guests can revitalize," says Gable. "People from around the world can feel at home." The suite has already been used for everything from lectures and investment seminars to cocktail ' parties and large, formal dinners. Now Gable even envisions an auction for some of the designer's impressive pieces.

Many items were loaned or donated—the leather on floors and doors and the piano, for example. The ottomans and cabinets are by Filicia's own company.

If there's anything to dislike about the suite, it's that non-VIP attendees won't be allowed to see it up close. To be fair, though, the U.S. may be committed to liberty and justice, but no one made guarantees about access to great design.

Previous spread, left: Designer Thom Filicia's VIP suite at the World Expo in Aichi, Japan, presents iconic American styles in temporary lounge, dining, and meeting areas. A partition of sawn sycamore by sculptor Bryan Nash Gill screens the lounge. Filicia designed the sofa. Previous spread, right: Vintage bleached bucks' skulls evoke the Southwest but were found in a store in Manhattan. The painting on a stock certificate is by Gavin Zeigler.

Top left: Ottomans are the designer's own. Bottom left: The credenza features bronze, walnut, and mica; the bird paintings are by Ross Bleckner.

Opposite: To compensate for a crude temporary shell with exposed HVAC, Filicia added real Douglas fir beams overhead "for intimacy and camouflage."

Opposite: Visitors enter the space by a stairway from the pavilion's theater. The horse photo is by Robert Dutesco.

Top, from left: Doors, like the floor, are clad in leather. A sunset painting by William Glen Crooks hangs above an American refectory table. Center top, from left: Throw pillows are by Carol Davis. A Cadillac's taillight serves as a sculpture. Center: Filicia designed tables in the dining area. Bottom, from left: Henry Richardson created this glass ball sculpture. In the men's room, wallpaper depicts SUVs.

Left: A foyer links the lounge to the enclosed meeting room. Below: In the men's room, Filicia placed wood lattices over floor-to-ceiling mirrors.

Opposite: In the meeting room, a painting by Timothy Tompkins overlooks the spalted maple table.

PROJECT MANAGER (MEYER DAVIS STUDIO): BRANDON SMITH. PROJECT TEAM: KATIE BURKE; MEGAN DOWNING. COFFEE TABLES (LOUNGE): POESIS THROUGH RALPH PUCCI INTERNATIONAL. CUSTOM SOFA: PHOENIX CUSTOM FURNITURE. RUG: A.M. COLLECTIONS. FLOOR LAMP: INTRIEURS. END TABLE: AERO STUDIOS. ROUND END TABLE: DUNBAR FURNITURE. SIDE CHAIR: BRITISH KHAKI FURNITURE. SLIPPER CHAIRS (LOUNGE, FOYER): BAKER. CONSOLE: HARRIS RUBIN. PIANO (ENTRY): STEINWAY SONS. LAMP: TWENTIETH. PENDANT FIXTURES (ENTRY), SCONCES (MENS ROOM): STEPHEN MCKAY. CUSTOM TABLES (DINING AREA): AS IT WAS. CHAIRS (DINING AREA, FOYER): KREISS ENTERPRISES. PENDANT FIXTURES (FOYER): CIRCA LIGHTING. SCONCES: WIGMORE LIGHTING DESIGNS. DOOR HARDWARE (MENS ROOM): SUN VALLEY BRONZE. WALL COVERING: STUDIO PRINTWORKS. SINK, FITTINGS: WATERWORKS. MIRROR: BARK FRAMEWORKS. PENDANT FIXTURES (MEETING ROOM): URBAN ARCHAEOLOGY. TABLE: JOHN HOUSHMAND. CHAIRS: DENNIS MILLER ASSOCIATES. TABLE LAMP: GALBRAITH PAUL. CURTAINS: CORAGGIO TEXTILES. LEATHER: EDELMAN LEATHER. GENERAL CONTRACTOR: TANSEISHA CO.