“To articulate his vision and help translate the various components of the business, Panichgul turned to friend and longtime collaborator Giancarlo Valle of SHoP Architects (Valle has since launched Studio Giancarlo Valle, a design agency focused on building spatial identities for brands). Valle conceived the space on Wooster Street in keeping with the tone of the neighborhood as dictated by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. “We were fascinated by the character of the cast-iron columns, which tell the story of this former factory and offer a compelling contrast to the restrained interior throughout,” Valle says. At times the five-month-long process proved trying, given the constraints. “We enlisted the help of two engineering teams to reinforce and stabilize the six-story structure and hit every imaginable roadblock, from having to reconstruct the rear yard and casting the basement floor to upgrading the entire sprinkler and mechanical system.”
–Architectural Digest