| EVENT REPORT 04.02.08 3:44 PM |
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| Extraordinary Environments |
| Even with a downsized venue, Diffa still packed its annual tabletop design showcase with stunning settings and ideas. |
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This year, Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS’s annual Dining by Design fund-raiser moved from its most recent home at the Waterfront to the downtown venue Skylight. The new location had a strong impact on the experience of walking through the showcase, which recruits a slate of designers and sponsors to build imaginative dining environments.
Compared with the Waterfront, with its exposed brick and steel beams (and the benefit's previous homes at the Hammerstein Ballroom and Roseland) Skylight's big white box provided a brighter, less distracting background for the designers' intensely layered creations. And the new site's smaller size necessitated a tighter collection of tables (cut down from more than 50 to 39) that made for a more focused—and more easily navigable—forum for locating trends and gathering ideas.
“It’s always a challenge to find a venue here, and for us, [Skylight is] a very user-friendly venue, with two load-in points—plus it’s a blank canvas for us; it’s a gallery,” said Diffa’s special events manager, Steven Williams. “It’s a little more exclusive because it’s smaller, and we have more sponsors this year.”
So, speaking of trends and ideas, how did the designers fill the new location? |
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PHOTO GALLERY |
 | A blanket of yarn covered the Rockwell Group's table, seating, flooring, and walls. Extra yarn accents included cozies for glasses and wine bottles, and tubular stockings that encased lightbulbs and wires.
Photo: Francine Daveta for BizBash |
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 | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill created a black cube housing a secluded black-and-white dining space with glossy, faceted walls.
Photo: Francine Daveta for BizBash |
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 | Nautica's yachtlike setting had decking along the sides, enormous sails that acted as canopies over the space, and cheery navy-blue-and-white-striped recessed seating.
Photo: Francine Daveta for BizBash |
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 | Marc Blackwell's dining room for Beringer incorporated humble materials like burlap with shirting fabrics and velvet on the chairs, and rich, natural wood on the table and walls, with mossy accents on the table.
Photo: Francine Daveta for BizBash |
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 | Fabrics and furnishings brand Kravet Inc. wove together elements of Assouline's book Inspired Styles, using textiles fastened with buttons along the sides of the table and a display of containers of inspiring everyday objects like crayons, candies, buttons, and colorful bricks of staples.
Photo: Francine Daveta for BizBash |
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 | Michael Tavano put together three distinct looks along one table for the New York Design Center. Furniture, place settings, and tabletop accessories (as well as carpets and wall treatments) transitioned from traditional to modern to young and contemporary looks.
Photo: Francine Daveta for BizBash |
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 | For sponsor Domino, Allison Sarofim and Stuart Parr created a miniature French garden reminiscent of Versailles that served as a living table runner. Two elaborate paper chandeliers hung above the table.
Photo: Francine Daveta for BizBash |
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 | David Stark's table for Benjamin Moore commemorated the paint company's 125th anniversary in a playful house made mostly out of paint swatches and paper. The table's handmade decorations included a birthday cake, party hats and horns, and candelabras.
Photo: Francine Daveta for BizBash |
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 | The Stolichnaya Elit table was a take on a vodka lounge: Bench seating surrounded a recessed table that could be covered for dining.
Photo: Francine Daveta for BizBash |
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 | Hewlett-Packard's podlike structure, inspired by Vivienne Tam, had a minimalist look containing only a circular white table and banquette. Slatted walls enclosed the space but gave it an open feel.
Photo: Francine Daveta for BizBash |
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Perhaps influenced by so much recent talk of green initiatives in design, many tables incorporated repurposed materials (a theme that sometimes contrasted with the over-the-top feel of many designs). In an area set aside for local design schools, students from the School of the Visual Arts used plastic water bottles as a table sculpture, and others from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts created napkin rings and a chandelier from metal paint-can handles. Not far away, sponsor Benjamin Moore's homey, brightly colored setup designed by David Stark was covered almost entirely with paint chips.
Another trend that cropped up was the recurring use of yellow, with arrangements of lemons and sunflowers at Celebrate Flowers’ table for Gourmet and a goldenrod-hued table linen at the Ralph Lauren Home space.
The three-day event began with the Table Hop and Tasting on Sunday—a day of public viewing, with $45 tickets giving guests a chance to sip wines and dine on bites from local restaurants including Ilili, Buddakan, Country, and Centrico—followed by a cocktail reception on Monday and last night’s gala dinner, where invited guests dined at the one-of-a-kind tables.
The event kicked off the multicity tour of Dining by Design events, which travels to Kansas City (the event was founded there), Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston. Tables designed for sponsors Beringer, Benjamin Moore, Hewlett-Packard, and Stolichnaya Elit, plus one of several for The New York Times, will travel to all the markets.
(Note: We'll post more from Dining by Design in the coming days. You can find all of our coverage here.)
—Lisa Cericola & Mark Mavrigian
RELATED TOPICS
Diffa, Diffa Dining by Design, Architectural Digest, Benjamin Moore, Beringer, Domino Magazine, Gourmet magazine, Hewlett-Packard, Kravet, Nautica, New York Design Center, The New York Times, Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Stolichnaya Elit, Vivienne Tam
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