Fresh Faces and Spaces at Kips Bay Decorator Show House
The Kips Bay Decorator Show House has raised over $19 million for the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club since its inception in 1973, a figure that funds about 15 percent of its operating costs each year. The 42nd annual edition opened to the public this week inside New York’s iconic Villard Houses at Madison Avenue and 51st Street, adjacent to the luxurious New York Palace hotel. The six 1880s townhouses were designed by McKim, Mead & White to resemble a Renaissance palazzo, now transformed by the likes of Christopher Peacock, Mark Hampton, Tony Ingrao and Mendelson Group and open to the public every day through May 29 (admission is $35).
“Stepping inside the historic mansion and its grand rooms immediately transforms you to another era,” says Bunny Williams, Show House Chair and celebrated interior designer. “With the help of these hand-selected twenty-two designers and architects, we’re looking forward to reviving one of Manhattan’s most-revered historic spaces while simultaneously raising funds to further enhance the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club and our region’s youth.”
Highlights include Ron Arad’s massive steel fire screen that morphs into a seat in Tony Ingrao and Randy Kemper’s first-floor former dining room. Next door in Juan Montaya’s sweeping space, a basalt table or bench by Korean designer Byung Hoon Choi resembles a fallen tree and an architectural intervention of plaster plays off the show house’s layering of styles and aesthetics. First-time Kips Bay designer Young Hug used a Lee Jofa document print to transform her narrow vestibule (connecting two bathrooms) into Hollyhock Lounge, covering the room’s walls with floral fabric.
Connecting spaces are equally stunning, including Robin Sack’s hand-painted stairwell running from the second to third floors, and SPAN Architecture’s central salon with custom seating and photography by Stephane Couturier. Meyer Davis Studio brought a slew of Brooklyn designers and craftsmen into the third floor corridor, where sculptures by Dustin Yellin join trendy lighting by Rich Brilliant Willing, Lindsey Adelman, and Jason Miller of Roll & Hill.
A lecture series, Kips Bay Salon Nights, is presented by The Monacelli Press and will take place every Tuesday evening throughout the duration of the show house from 6-8pm.
Featured designers: Carrier and Company Interiors Ltd.; Christopher Peacock; Cullman & Kravis Inc.; Darryl Carter, Inc.; Edward Lobrano Interior Design, Inc.; Ingrao Inc.; John Douglas Eason Interiors; Juan Montoya Design; Kirsten Kelli, LLC; Mark Hampton LLC; Markham Roberts Inc.; Martyn Lawrence Bullard; Matthew Quinn; Mendelson Group, Inc.; Meyer Davis Studio, Inc.; ODADA (Orlando Diaz-Azcuy Design Associates); Robin Sacks Decorative Painting; SPaN Architecture; Vicente Wolf Associates; Villalobos Desio; William T. Georgis Architect; Young Huh, LLC
