Lounge Area

We designed a commercial space that refuses to feel corporate — one that invites people to stay, connect, and think.

This commission came from a boutique investment firm in Midtown Manhattan that was dissatisfied with the generic quality of its existing offices and client-facing spaces. They had recently moved into a full floor of a pre-war building — high ceilings, deep windows, good bones — and wanted to transform the client lounge and shared areas into something that genuinely reflected their culture: thoughtful, unhurried, confident without display. We were asked to design a space that clients would remember not for its ostentation but for how it made them feel: attended to, calm, and at ease in the hands of people who pay close attention.

The central challenge of any high-end commercial interior is resisting the pull of corporate convention while still meeting the functional demands of a professional environment. Here, the solution lay in applying residential-grade materials and thinking to every surface and selection. Floors are in wide-plank European oak rather than polished stone. Seating areas are composed of deep sofas in mohair velvet and leather, chosen for their comfort as much as their appearance. Lighting is entirely non-fluorescent, drawing on a mix of architectural downlights and table lamps that create the quality of light you find in a well-appointed private library. The result is a firm that now has spaces worthy of the conversations that take place within them.