The Wright is a restaurant located within the iconic Guggenheim Museum in New York. The museum was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; the restaurant by Andre Kikoski Architect. The museum provides a text with a statement given by the architect, which I feel sums the place up more better than I can. I will say though, that it does seem to be a well crafted contemporary yet retrospective addition/in-dition to the museum’s iconic forms and spaces. So without further ado… words.
The Wright at the Guggenheim is designed by Andre Kikoski Architect, an imaginative, award-winning Manhattan-based architecture and design firm.
“It was both an incredible honor and an exhilarating challenge to work within Wright’s iconic building,” says Kikoski, adding “every time we visit, we see a new subtlety in it that deepens our appreciation of its sophistication. We sought to create a work that is both contemporary and complementary.”
Courtesy of Kikoski Architect
The design solution references the building’s architecture without repeating it, and in the process transforming familiar geometries, spatial effects and material qualities. The playfulness of forms and the dynamics of movement through this 1,600 square foot space imbue the design with novelty, subtlety and intrigue, in part through the material palette of the space.
The project is representative of Andre Kikoski Architect’s style – inventive, dramatic and highly tactile. Sculptural forms for the flared ceiling, undulating banquette, and torqued bar and communal table are crafted in contemporary materials. They are based on Wright’s underlying geometries. The design brings to life a play between these sculptural elements and the architecturally-layered, illuminated materials that invite participation and a sense of delight for all patrons.
Courtesy of Kikoski Architect
“We chose materials and colors for these dynamic forms that are restrained and elegant” explains Andre Kikoski. The design features include: a curvilinear wall of walnut layered with illuminated fiber-optics; a bar clad in a shimmering skin of innovative custom metalwork and topped in seamless white Corian; a sweeping banquette with vivid blue leather seating backed by illuminated planes of woven grey texture; and a layered ceiling canopy of taut white membrane.
Courtesy of Kikoski Architect
Andre Kikoski Architect’s design philosophy for this restaurant engages the heightened sense of procession that is essential to the experience of this building – and the dynamic perception of art that it fosters. Surfaces and textures are animated by movement, creating an ever-changing fluid aesthetic that is an essential part of the design.
