Barbizon Hotel
New York City
HOSPITALITY
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ommisioned to renovate the lobby, bar and restaurant areas of the Barbizon Hotel on Manhattan's Upper East Side, interior designer Zoya Bograd, ASID of New York City wanted to make an "eye-catch-ing and memorable" statement. The existing spaces "didn't have any personality," she says. Budget constraints ruled out making structural changes, so Bograd opted for decorative painting and special finishes to give these public areas a fresh new look.
Photography by Peter Paige.
ommisioned to renovate the lobby, bar and restaurant areas of the Barbizon Hotel on Manhattan's Upper East Side, interior designer Zoya Bograd, ASID of New York City wanted to make an "eye-catch-ing and memorable" statement. The existing spaces "didn't have any personality," she says. Budget constraints ruled out making structural changes, so Bograd opted for decorative painting and special finishes to give these public areas a fresh new look.
Photography by Peter Paige.
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For starters, she gave the sweeping staircase-which leads from the restaurant up to the mezzanine lounge-new importance by specifying a faux-wood finish for its balustrade and faux-marble for the baseboards. In addition, she had the earthtoned walls and columns repainted white to focus attention on the detailing of the staircase and ceiling.
To pull the space together visually, she decided on a ceiling painting that depicts the twelve signs of the zodiac. This treatment was inspired by the frescoes at the Villa Farnese, which Bograd saw during a stay in Italy. Her version features figures from mythology floating on billows of clouds against a dramatic sky. "A mixture of red and blue paint was used for the sky to add dimension to the ceiling," Bograd explains. Gold-painted moldings frame the painting's various scenes, lending an almost Byzantine effect. In keeping with this astral-mythological theme, painted canvases with sun and moon motifs decorate the walls at the top of the stairs, and a custom-designed "solar system" chandelier hangs from the ceiling.
The highly detailed ceiling painting was finished in just five weeks, during which time the bar/restaurant remained open for business. "We built a platform that covered the ceiling so the artists could paint in privacy," Bograd remarks. After seeing the result, the hotel renamed the space The Star Bar and Cafe, and opened a gift shop merchandising Star Bar memorabilia. "The ceiling creates a remembering effect," Bograd sums up. "Both adults and kids love it...it's one of a kind." -Suzanne Dorn
n an inviting tapestry painting of the Italian country-side greets guests at the Barbizon reception desk. Always decorated with flowers, this warm, wooded area projects a townhouse elegance for the renowned historic hotel, built in 1927 as a residence for women in the arts and now catering to an international clientele.
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he hand-painted mural applied by craftsmen to the lobby ceiling represented the Greek mythological story of the four seasons. Spring shown here as Demeter, goddess of the harvest, agriculture and fertility. Fall represented by the abduction of Persephone by Hades after six months.
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he club-like atmosphere of the hotel is reflected in this intimate lobby seating area, where tufted leather sofas mix comfortably with high-back chairs covered in a red stripe. The faux-marble table, which adds richness to the seating, was a salvage piece transformed by hand-painted artistry.
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he sweeping staircase, "a staircase to heaven" says some admirers, leads the eye up to a masterpiece ceiling fresco of the twelve signs of the zodiac, inspired by the Villa Farnese in Italy and executed by Russian artists under the designer's direction. The massive hexagonal columns have newly gilded capitols, adding to the sense of grandeur.
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mong the touches of genius that carry out the celestial theme and contribute to an atmosphere of elegant dining are a custom chandelier, representing the sun with nine planets, and a painted tapestry of the moon and sun.
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