CONCIERGE

Exceptional spaces to eat, play, work, and stay.

By Rachel Gallaher

PANORAMA ROOM

The design for the Panorama Room—the rooftop bar at the new Graduate Hotel Roosevelt Island—combines a futurist aesthetic with ’70s glam.

Steve Freihon

New Yorkers have opinions about everything, from where to find the best pizza and tastiest bagels to the quickest route downtown on a Friday night. But after the summer opening of the Panorama Room—the rooftop bar at the new Graduate Hotel Roosevelt Island—there’s sure to be consensus on one point: that some of the most unique views of the city can now be had from off the usual tourist-trodden paths. The narrow, 2-mile-long isle in the East River isn’t the first place most people head for a glitzy night out. So for Danu Kennedy, design director at Parts and Labor Design, the key to making Panorama Room a must-visit bar was creating knockout interiors that worked with the views without overpowering them.

The deck offers patrons unique views of Manhattan and Brooklyn from its location on the 2-mile-long Roosevelt Island, which is situated in the East River.

Steve Freihon

“We embraced that view and created a jewel-box interior that communicated a strong point of view,” he says. “The design language is rooted in futurism (Italian, Afro, and beyond), which was something Marc Rose and Med Abrous [of hospitality group Call Mom] had envisioned from day one. Our approach was to sculpt the space into a transformative, surreal experience with the panoramic view at the heart of it.”

Custom lighting installations throughout the space bring an edge to the design.

Steve Freihon

Aside from the views, the main attraction is the bar—topped with Orobico Red marble and illuminated by large, geometric lighting installations hanging from the ceiling—which provides guests with a spirited backdrop for enjoying a Friday-night cocktail. The rest of Panorama Room is decked out in a spectrum of rich, pink and raspberry hues, with custom-designed seating (from a tall, winding banquette to smaller round stools) upholstered in velvet. Glass tables, chrome details, and monolithic black-tile-clad columns add to the ’70s-glam vibe, while a dove-gray poured-concrete floor keeps things modern.

“There’s a bougie, sexy feel to the space,” Kennedy says. “A lot of reflectivity and texture. We wanted people to feel good in the room. You might walk in feeling one way, but you’re definitely going to walk out feeling better.”

GIOVANE BACARO

Vancouver’s restaurant-design guru hits again with an eatery that takes cues from classic Venetian cicchetti bars.

Demure Creative House

The interiors of Giovane Bacaro, the new restaurant in the lobby level of Vancouver’s Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel, are the work of Ste. Marie Art + Design. Dark walnut wood casework anchors the space.

Demure Creative House

Given the ubiquity of open floorplans and high ceilings in the international hospitality scene, it was a calculated risk for the designers behind Giovane Bacaro, the new restaurant in the lobby level of Vancouver’s Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel, to willingly separate its various sections. Under the guidance of Craig Stanghetta, founder and principal of Ste. Marie Art + Design, a firm known for its creative, highend hospitality projects, the risk paid off. With help from dark wood finishes and bespoke details, the layout creates the feeling of a classic neighborhood Italian joint.

“We were working with a preexisting space that had low ceilings, and right away we said, ‘Let’s embrace them and make them a feature,’” Stanghetta says. “I like spots that have that old-school feeling where everything isn’t just one open space, so we leaned into that idea.”

Inspired by Italian designer Enzo Mari’s use of primary colors, Craig Stanghetta, founder and principal of Ste. Marie Art + Design, incorporated brightly colored Spaghetti chairs (introduced in the 1970s by Alias Design) into the décor.

Demure Creative House

Taking a cue from the popular cicchetti bars of Venice (crowded, boisterous spaces that traditionally serve wine and small plates) and the Italian modernist artist and furniture designer Enzo Mari, who illustrated several children’s books with vibrant primary colors, Stanghetta chose bright yellow and red hues for details including table legs, hand railings, seating, and light fixtures. Rich walnut wood paneling, casework, and tabletops bring warmth and depth to the space, and contemporary and modernist Italian furniture, including bright-red Spaghetti stools by Alias Design, keep things classic and streamlined.

A meat locker is repurposed as a room divider.

Demure Creative House

Divided into three sections (a coffee bar, a cicchetti counter, and a bottle shop), the space accommodates groups, solo dining, and communal meals. In the retail area, Stanghetta repurposed a glass meat locker into a room divider, bringing in just a hint of gritty industrialism. “We really looked to Enzo Mari’s design approach as we worked,” he says, “asking [ourselves], how do you make something rudimentary but use a beautiful design language?”

THE GREEN O

The Social Haus—a hub at the center of a secluded, high-end resort in Montana—references the surrounding forest in nuanced design details.

NOTION WORKSHOP

Seattle-based design and architecture firm Mutuus Studio’s vision for Social Haus, the central dining area at the Green O resort in Montana, was a communal gathering space that takes aesthetic cues from the natural world.

NOTION WORKSHOP

Nestled in the mountains of the Blackfoot River Valley of western Montana, the Green O—an adultsonly luxury resort at the southern edge of Paws Up Ranch—takes glamping to the next level. The Resort at Paws Up was one of the first places in North America to introduce the “glamorous camping” trend, and with this latest iteration (12 accommodations with sunken living rooms, glassed-in spiral staircases, and terraces in the trees), it throws high design into the mix.

The small, standalone “hauses,” as the resort calls them, are positioned around the Social Haus, a community gathering space, bar, and restaurant. The members of Seattle-based Mutuus Studio served as the interior architects for the Social Haus (the building’s shell was already underway when the firm was brought on), infusing their poetic design sensibilities into the materials and details.

Social Haus’ large bifold doors connect the interior dining space with the surrounding forest.

“The initial sketch by [studio cofounder] Jim Friesz of the large circular banquette around the central fire reinforces the metaphor of the ‘Green O,’” says Mutuus cofounder and architect Kristen Becker. “The green leather is a playful reference to the play on words inherent in the resort’s name [in the early 1900s, local farmer Paul Greenough ‘branded’ his sheep with a painted green ‘O’]. But going from there, we started using this idea of connecting everything to fire. The building is in the woods, there’s a large bifold door that opens to connect the space with the landscape, and the exterior of the building is done in shou sugi ban, a Japanese charred-wood finish.”

Two firepits (one used for culinary purposes and one for atmosphere) serve as focal points inside the Social Haus, and a semicircular bar gives guests a peek at food being prepared.

The same wood paneling—charred using the Japanese shou sugi ban technique—used on the building’s exterior covers the walls in the Social Haus entry vestibule.

The fireplace hoods have a custom patina by Mutuus’ Saul Becker that evokes a copper pan that has aged over time. Kiln-fired clay tiles, a soapstone countertop (the material is heat-resistant and was chosen so that a pan straight from the fire can sit directly on the surface), and a custom, metal-and-canvas-sling firewood holder that stands 10 feet high continue the fire-and-heat motif.

Guests will find that every seating option has its advantages, Becker says, from the social-driven bar to two-tops tucked away in private corners. “We wanted every table to be a star,” she says, “and for everyone to feel like they have the best seat in the house."