Right On Target

Bull's-eye architecture by SPAN, luxe furnishings by Studio Sofield, and a list of celebrity members set the power scene that is New York's Core Club

by Aric Chen -- Interior Design, 11/1/2006

How do you design a social club where the member's roster lists Richard Meier, Vernon Jordan, Marianne Boesky, and John McEnroe, and your average hedge-fund manager pays $110,000 just to join? You do it with flair.

Stonely Pelsinski Architects Neukomm has filled the bill with New York's Core Club, a members-only stomping ground for moguls, luminaries, and other high-octane personalities—planned to be the first in a series of locations around the world. The concept involved all the trappings of an upper-echelon playground: a place to power-lunch, a spa for unwinding, a theater for private screenings, and a library compiled by a Paris Review veteran, not to mention a collection of contemporary art curated by powerhouse Yvonne Force Villareal. "We had to rethink the private club while infusing it with a certain level of culture," SPAN principal Jean-Gabriel Neukomm recalls. In other words, "jackets required" need not apply.

Core Group founder Jennie Saunders, a onetime lawyer turned entrepreneur, approached SPAN for the job after being impressed by the architects' Calvin Klein boutique in a Dallas suburb. Founded in 1998, SPAN unites Neukomm with Karen Stonely and Peter Pelsinski. Stonely, a former Robert A.M. Stern Architects intern, and Pelsinski, a recipient of the AIA's Henry Adams medal, previously practiced together under the name SPA. Neukomm, who knew Pelsinski from graduate architecture school at Princeton University, joined them after working at Eisenman Architects, then on his own. Together, the trio combine conceptual rigor with a sensitivity to materials.

The Core Club has a blazing-white lobby where a plaster sidewall's serrated-looking horizontal pleats seem to point directly toward a Damien Hirst spin painting, straight ahead. Beyond, an angular gallery hung with works by Andy Warhol, among others, doubles as an anteroom for a triple-bandshell theater. Inside, a David Salle scrim twinkles with a constellation of LED lights. Why all the angled surfaces? The entry's pleated wall, for one, was construed as what Stonely calls the "Core pattern," a motif that, in various iterations, instills a sense of movement and transformation throughout the seven-story 30,000-square-foot project.

Occasional references to clubs of yore are veiled with uncommon inventiveness and a lush use of materials. Take the lounge on the second floor. Meeting at odd angles on the walls, thin slats of oak "reinterpret the oak paneling of a classic New York club," Stonely says. A fireplace is surrounded by origami folds of book-matched black marble. The bar, meanwhile, dazzles with a kaleidoscope of reflective surfaces. Behind a counter of mirrored stainless steel, a wall ripples with backlit half cylinders of cast glass; overhead, cylinders of the same cast glass drop from the ceiling like glammed-up stalactites. The bar's swivel stools with laced brown leather backs are the work of the project's interior design consultant, Studio Sofield, which designed virtually all of the club's custom furniture. "It's a metropolitan cocktail of European and Hollywood luxe," Interior Design Hall of Fame member Bill Sofield explains. For the rest of the ipé-floored lounge, he designed a black leather-covered sofa with cushions in black-and-white banded silk, armchairs in cream bouclé with black leather piping, walnut cocktail tables, and wool-silk rugs in ocher and brown.

The visual pace accelerates even more in the restaurant, where a Willem de Kooning holds pride of place. On a carpet striped in gray, brown, and lavender, tables of bronze and polished rosewood are paired with armless chairs in cream silk and blue leather. Another pleated wall, this one covered in iridescent tangerine silk, rises behind a banquette in similarly colored crushed velvet. Columns clad in smoked mirror and silk support an elegantly coved ceiling. Outside on the terrace, a Julian Schnabel sculpture stands tall: Picture a giant bowling pin with legs.

Creating "vertical continuity," Pelsinkski says, involved a lot more than an elevator—even when it features a light installation by Leo Villareal. On level three, with its steam rooms, saunas, and lockers, the foyer's Carrara marble floor is punctuated by ipé strips that point the way to a stair that's partially concealed by an undulating screen of oak. At the top of the stair is the fitness room, which is next to the library. No club is complete without one, but the Core Club's is the "opposite of a dark, stuffy, book-lined room," Pelsinski says. Glass shelves, mounted on bronzed aluminum frames, allow views through the building's curtain wall, and the gleam of the finely ridged white-lacquered walls shows off works by Salle and Jean-Michel Basquiat. With button-tufted club chairs, at once tailored and cozy, there's no better place to relax after a day of moving and shaking.

Previous spread, left: In the fitness room at the Core Club in New York, Stonely Pelsinski Architects Neukomm used slats of ipé and oak to incorporate vents and fluorescent lighting.

Previous spread, right: In the lobby, a Damien Hirst in house paint on canvas faces the entry.

Left, from top: The lounge's custom cast-glass pendant fixtures hang above a bar topped in mirrored stainless steel, while cast-glass half cylinders line the wall behind. The adjacent restaurant is furnished with Studio Sofield's custom polished-rosewood tables, chairs covered in leather and silk, and wool carpet; the antiqued-glass pendant fixtures are SPAN's custom design. Right: In the lounge, Richard Prince's painting is mounted on an oak-slat wall. Sofield designed the custom walnut bench with silk-covered cushions.

Opposite: A lounge seating group's sofa upholstered in leather, armchairs covered in wool bouclé, walnut cocktail table, and wool-silk rug are all custom designs by Sofield. A mirrored column captures the reflection of an Andy Warhol diamond-dust painting.

Opposite: Carrara marble clads the foyer leading to the steam rooms, saunas, and lockers. An installation of oak strips starts as a bench, then undulates upward to conceal the stair to the fitness room.

Above: Acid-etched glass panels, glass mosaic wall tile, and custom marble floor tile introduce the steam room.

Left, from top: The lobby's terrazzo flooring flows past the reception desk. Lined in burlap, the theater features a David Salle scrim lit by LEDs. Right: Bronzed aluminum frames support the library's glass bookshelves.

Opposite: The library's lacquered paneling provides a backdrop for works by Salle and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Sofield's chairs are upholstered in wool and silk.

PROJECT TEAM: LUAY BAHOORA; MCLAIN CLUTTER; MADELEINE DYMLING; MINA HATANO-KIRSCH; CHUCK MATTERN; JOHN MURPHEY; KEVIN OLIVER; SONIA OLIVEIRA; SARAH RAINES. CUSTOM BAR COUNTER (LOUNGE): MILGO/BUFKIN. CUSTOM STOOLS: VIGILANT. CUSTOM PENDANT FIXTURES (LOUNGE, RESTAURANT): AURORA LAMPWORKS. STOOL UPHOLSTERY (LOUNGE), BANQUETTE UPHOLSTERY (RESTAURANT), SOFA UPHOLSTERY (LOUNGE), SEAT UPHOLSTERY (THEATER): DUALOY LEATHER. CUSTOM SCONCES (LOUNGE), CHAIR FABRIC (RESTAURANT): LARSEN. PLACE MATS: CHILEWICH. STEMWARE: REIDEL. BANQUETTE BACK FABRIC: OLD WORLD WEAVERS. WALL COVERING: JIM THOMPSON. CUSTOM CARPET (RESTAURANT), CUSTOM RUGS (LOUNGE): CREATIVE MATTERS. COLUMN FABRIC (RESTAURANT), WALL, CEILING FABRIC (THEATER), CUSTOM WINDOW TREATMENTS: DFB SALES. BENCH FABRIC, SOFA FABRIC (LOUNGE): RALPH LAUREN. CHAIR FABRIC: ZIMMER + ROHDE. CURTAIN FABRIC (LOUNGE), SEAT FABRIC (THEATER): BERGAMO FABRICS. GLASS TILE (STEAM ROOM): TOWN AND COUNTRY FLOORING. CUSTOM SHELVES (LIBRARY): LINDBROOK. CHAIR FABRIC: HOLLAND SHERRY. CUSTOM RUG: A.M. COLLECTIONS. CUSTOM FURNITURE: JL FURNISHINGS. PAINT: BENJAMIN MOORE CO. MILLWORK: SG WOODWORKING. STONEWORK: WILKSTONE. LIGHTING CONSULTANT: WILLIAM ARMSTRONG LIGHTING DESIGN. STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: GILSANZ MURRAY STEFICEK. MEP: COSENTINI ASSOCIATES. GENERAL CONTRACTOR: GLENROCK CONSTRUCTION.