Must See Interiors – Park Avenue Restaurant, NYC

By Emily Anderson, Allied Member ASID
As an interior designer, I have a long list of public installations I would like to experience one day. I want to feel the fabrics, sit in the seats and smell the smells of some of the best interiors this great country has to offer.
I thought this week I would share some of my list with you.  I considered calling it the "The Top 5 Must See Interiors in the U.S." And that's when I realized how absolutely ridiculous that would be. There are millions of "must sees" all across the country!
It's an ideal we hold true to at LiLu. No interior we design is like any other. And no interior we design is experienced in the same way by people who inhabit it. My top five would be completely different from yours. And ours would be different from Lisa's, LuAnne's and Christina's. I could visit some of the places on your list and experience something completely different. That is the beauty of interior design; a design is given life and breath by the people who enter it. Your experience within an interior is affected by your mood, the people you are with, the temperature, even the time of day. Interiors are never static, they are always changing.
Sticking with this idea of change and newness of experience, my first stop is a restaurant in New York City called Park Avenue. The restaurant was designed to completely change identities with the season. From menus, to server uniforms to cocktail napkins and matchbooks, everything turns from spring to summer to autumn to winter. The brainchild of New York based design firm, AvroKo, the designers took their cues from the travels of Captain James Cook. The reviews I've read about the food and service are mediocre, so I should probably get there sooner rather than later. But I would order a glass of wine and take in the creativity of a space that changes with the wind.
[caption id="attachment_4748" align="aligncenter" width="420" caption="Park Avenue - Spring"][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_4749" align="aligncenter" width="420" caption="Park Avenue - Summer"][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_4750" align="aligncenter" width="420" caption="Park Avenue - Autumn"][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_4751" align="aligncenter" width="420" caption="Park Avenue - Winter"][/caption]
I guess now I have to pick what season to visit the restaurant. As a Midwestern girl, I think I might like to visit the summer interior in the winter. Or maybe that isn't an option.
Check out tomorrow's blog to find out where we are going next. Since we are already in NYC, let's meander down to Beantown.
Also, become a friend on Facebook and let us know your favorite interiors. What do you consider a must-see? We'd love to hear from you.