Abe & Arthur's
It takes only a few minutes to realize that Lionel Ohayon, founder of I©RAVE, has a unique take on architecture and design. “We aim for the experiential,” he says. “We concentrate on the sociology behind everything we design because architecture can either facilitate or foil emotional experiences in any given setting.”
The mission statement of the seven-year-old company, which was designed as a lab for architectural advancement, is equally profound: “Architecture is choreographic not because a particular route is necessarily described but because it has an inherent rhythm and set of rules to govern one’s motion…Architecture is erotic. It is the semblance of sexual experience that embodies fantasies and obsessions. It structures social relations.”
Ohayon has grown the business from a two-person firm to an operation with 35 employees in less than a decade. So how does his talented team bring his philosophies to bear on their projects? By designing spaces that push people outside their comfort zones. “We’re intent on creating human interaction,” says the slim attractive man completely at ease in his casually hip office. “We focus entire projects around particular goals, like one in which we’re making the older crowd we’re designing for fall in love again. We’re more like sculptors than architects.”
The nuts and bolts of this philosophical bent may come down to studying closely the distance between tables or how tall the backs of a restaurant’s banquettes are. “We want people to interact in ways they may not ordinarily embrace,” Ohayon explains. “If the backs of the banquettes are not tall enough to support the entire body, then diners may touch from time to time—that’s the level of the experiential we’re trying to achieve.”
I had the pleasure of experiencing two of the company’s restaurants while in New York last week. First up is Abe & Arthur’s, an eatery that reflects a classic urbanity while maintaining the edginess of its surroundings in the Meat Packing District. Ohayon says this edginess was an intentional move. “There is a sense of layering in this neighborhood that allures people,” he explains. “The last layer of rawness never lets go in the streets and on the building facades and we want to capture that in our interiors.”
To mimic this grittiness in a refined way, I©RAVE set skylights above infinity boxes that appear to be horizontal windows but are in reality two-way mirrors through which theatrical lighting streams even at night. Massive beams that reach to the ceilings are sprayed with plaster for added texture and grids in the ceiling are clad in ultra suede, hiding acoustical panels while creating geometric shapes that play into the architectural sophistication of riveted beam meeting glass, mirror meeting wainscoting and pale herringbone meeting earthy leather.
Light fixtures are generously proportioned circular shades of nubby fabric, their offbeat personalities gained from counterbalanced metal orbs dangling on cords, lending the fixtures an industrial feel that saves them from being predictable. For an artful edge, Ohayon ran a lit shark’s tooth scrim of graffiti around the room behind a two-way mirror, the lighting on which is programmed to either highlight the scrim or make it disappear so that the brick wall behind it can be glimpsed through it. As I was dining, I watched the dynamic ebbing and flowing of light as it revealed graffiti, then brick, then graffiti in subtle flows of motion. “The scrim speaks to the layers of the neighborhood, proclaiming to the people who are seeing it that they are the last layer,” says Ohayon.
Enhancing the incredible meal at Abe & Arthur’s was general manager Adam Landsman’s well-trained staff. When our waitress Melissa was tweaking the place settings on the table next to us after it had been cleared and reset, I was reminded of Scarlett Johansson’s character in “Girl with a Pearl Earring” as she carefully and lovingly dusted the table around and beneath the still life elements Johannes Vermeer was painting to be certain that nothing was a millimeter off once she was finished.
After dinner, a drink at STK brought Ohayon’s design process for that venue to life. The overarching theme—it’s not your daddy’s steakhouse—couldn’t have been more apropos. “STK wanted to break away from the traditional steak house,” Ohayon explains. “All of the expected elements are there—leather, studs, fireplaces—but they are there in unexpected ways.” The anchor of the “chick friendly” steak house is an elevated “stage,” a platform for seating with custom-designed curvaceous banquettes that create intimate seating areas.
Barn lights used in theatrical staging and bocci lights, which twinkle above to mimic the experience of being huddled around a campfire, set the ambiance. One of the most personable elements is wave after wave of ivory colored horns undulating across the wall behind the bar—the molded material bringing a new twist to the ubiquitous steak-house motif. Glass boxes of fire are archetypal elements sprinkled around the restaurant—creating a warm glow that would equally please Hestia, the Greek Goddess of the sacred fire, and the most modern manifestation of the worshiped woman.
If you’re craving more of the company’s projects, you’re in luck. Provocateur will soon be open in the Hotel Gansevoort in New York City and Ohayon traveled to Roterdam this past weekend to christen a new casino that was two years in the making. “The casino was designed to be a destination—a place everyone has to see,” he says. “We designed it to become part of the fabric of the city, which is an important aspect of every project we design.” Look for images on the Rotterdam casino project on Design Commotion's November issue, which will be online on November 10.
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