TRANSLATING A DREAM: Martin Brudnizki brings the Barrière L’art de Vivre to New York.
Editorial
TRANSLATING A DREAM: Martin Brudnizki brings the Barrière L’art de Vivre to New York.
“If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream,” mused René Magritte, quintessential depictor of the familiar in unexpected contexts. Stepping off a cobbled street towards an edifice of typically Tribecan red brick, the breeze off the nearby Hudson transports one, dreamlike, into a perfectly translated French idyll. Hotel Barrière Fouquet’s New York, with its subtle art deco polish and textural glamour, effortlessly embraces the nuances of the cultures from whence it came and where it now resides.
“Materiality is at the heart of our design,” says Brudnizki, no more so than at Fouquet’s New York. ”
The mohair velvet upholstery and glossy burr walnut that line the interiors are reflected by antique mirroring beneath crystal chandeliers, illuminating traditional herringbone floors and limestone detailing. For Brudnizki, a “layered approach creates a welcoming and warm atmosphere that makes the new hotel feel as though it has always been a part of the Tribeca landscape.” That layered landscape is strikingly captured in a commissioned wallpaper by Schumacher. Drawing from “eighteenth century cotton printing workshops, Toile de Jouy symbolises the timelessness of French savoir-faire and its importance in the history of decorative arts,” says Desseigne of the commission for the New York project, “the wallpaper design was given a new look, with original motifs to pay tribute to both of our countries.” Instead of the traditional hunting or landscape scenes, there are joyful motifs of neighbourhood restaurant The Odeon, a street pretzel cart, and pigeons flying with a baguette in their beaks. “It knits this whole story together,” says Brudnizki.
FULL STORY AVAILABLE IN THE FIRST VOLUME OF VICARIOUS VIGNETTES. RELEASED SUMMER 2025.