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Take a design journey through NoMad & Flatiron

NoMad & Flatiron

This duo of neighborhoods is defined by the rich architectural legacy of beautiful gilded-age Cast-Iron, Second Empire, and French Renaissance Revival mansions and commercial buildings constructed in the late 19th century just as the area was becoming New York City’s social and cultural hub. As a district with irregular boundaries, the central location of both the iconic Flatiron Building with its novel triangular shape, and Madison Square Park to the building’s immediate north with its must-see, year-round art installations, helps anchor the area. These neighborhoods are bustling with energy, filled with residents, hotels, noteworthy restaurants, museums, international design firms, and global home decor showrooms. In this district, design is visible. Journey through them and see for yourself.

From Amorepacific, to Rolls Royce, to educational institutions like Tulane and the School of Visual Arts, Pentagram, the world’s largest independently owned design studio with offices in London, New York City, Austin, and Berlin, has been designing for companies and organizations since 1972. The firm is owned by 23 practicing designers, making it somewhat of an anomaly in its field. Their roster of partners includes many industry heavyweights like Michael Beirut, Natasha Jen, Paula Scher, and Eddie Opara. The studio’s work spans the design spectrum and includes brand identity; exhibition, book, packaging, and industrial designs; interiors and architecture; wayfinding; experiential installations and more.

Pentagram

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Found partially within the Madison Square Park North Historic District, The NoMad (North of Madison Square Park) Design District’s irregularly mapped collection of 96 preserved buildings dating from the 1870s to the 1930s, lies between Lexington to 6th Avenue, and 26th street to 34th street. Much of the District’s early architecture remains and includes buildings in the Beaux Arts, Second Empire, Art Deco, and Neo-Classical styles. During its early years, the area saw success as a major entertainment hub and mercantile center. Today, with a dense concentration of international design showrooms, NoMad Design District is the premiere destination for interior designers, architects, developers and end-users from across the world, seeking upmarket home furnishings, lighting, and accessories.

NoMad Design District

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Located to the immediate south of Madison Square Park with its salient form and striking presence, the 22-story, triangular-shaped Flatiron Building creates a unique sense of place within the Flatiron District and is one of New York City’s most recognizable buildings. Completed in 1902, the National Historic Landmark was one of the city’s first skyscrapers and the world’s first steel-framed skyscraper. Architects Daniel Burnham and Frederick Dinkelberg designed the building to fit into its unique triangle-like footprint, formed by the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street. The building’s Beaux-Arts façade starts off with limestone at the base and changes to glazed white terracotta as it rises. Currently, the Flatiron Building is undergoing interior modernization, with design work being done by historic building experts Beyer Blinder Belle. The aim is to achieve LEED Platinum status. Many blockbuster movies have featured the Flatiron Building, including Godzilla and Spiderman.

Flatiron building

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Today ICRAVE is located just off Madison Square Park in a large multi-purpose, open-plan space that receives lots of natural light and is designed to encourage collaboration. An internationally recognized 40-person studio of designers, strategists, and architects offering design, branding, and strategy, ICRAVE continues to innovate and transform user experiences across industries like hospitality, air travel, and cancer care.

ICRAVE

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After 34 years at the helm of celebrated Gotham Bar & Grill and loaded with three James Beard awards, five three-star reviews from the New York Times, and a Michelin star, Chef Alfred Portale—one of the famed pioneers of New American cuisine—has opened his first restaurant. Named after the famous chef, Portale is an exploration of regional Italian cooking executed with a modern sensibility. Located at 126 West 18th Street, Portale occupies a landmarked carriage house built in 1864, one of nine extant stables from a group of thirteen, erected between 1864-1866. The two-story brick building’s large arched windows relate to its mix of revival Romanesque, Renaissance, and Byzantine styles. Inside, INC Architecture & Design have created a contemporary interpretation of mid-twentieth-century Italian decor. A blend of unhewn materials like painted-white exposed brick, mixed with meticulously crafted details made of brass, black lacquer, teal leather, calacatta arabescato marble, and burled walnut envelop the restaurant's interior.

Portale

Poster House began operating in 2019 at 119 West 23rd Street. The ten-story building, constructed around 1901 by The National Cloak Company, housed several publishing firms; stationers and mail-order companies; novelty manufacturers; and the now defunct, but previously popular Tekserve, over the years. The museum’s 14,500 square feet of space includes a through-block storefront and a cellar of the same length. The street level space makes use of extant exposed brick, barrel vaults, and cast iron columns and is divided into a café and a thoroughfare from 23rd to 24th Streets on the west side, and galleries to the east.

Poster House

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Established over 20 years ago, Parsons' Donghia healthier Materials Library located at The New School, just south of Union Square, was created as an academic resource to help the school’s students, faculty, and NYC’s greater design community choose healthier, more responsible materials. Designers are able to directly interact with the library’s wealth of curated samples–like the versatile Hemp plant used to make everything from textiles to concrete alternatives–that have positive effects on the environment and human health. The end-goal–an introduction and use of more sustainable products. As a part of the Parsons' Healthy Materials Lab, the Library’s materials collection is kept informed by the Lab’s continuous research.

Donghia Healthier Materials Library at Parsons

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The New York Design Center is the country’s oldest and most distinguished furniture and design building. Located within the NoMad Design District at 200 Lexington Avenue, the 16-story, 500,000-square-foot building was designed by Ely Jacques Kahn in 1926 and called the New York Furniture Exchange, built solely for showcasing furniture to department store and furniture resellers. By the late 1970s, The Center began to include interior designers and architects, and in 1981, emerged as the New York Design Center. In 2012, the building received a complete 21st-century revamp with new interiors by Conant Architects (now a part of Vocon). Today, individual consumers can come into the New York Design Center for tours or receive assistance with their design process through the Center’s Access to Design program. The building houses nearly 100 showrooms representing more than 500 lines of fine, traditional, contemporary, residential and contract furniture, as well as fabric, floor covering, lighting, wall covering, kitchen and bath and decorative accessory resources.

New York Design Center

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Founded in 1974, Center for Book Arts (CBA) is the oldest nonprofit dedicated to promoting “active explorations of artistic practices related to the book as an art object”. Through online and in-person pay-what-you-can workshops on bookbinding, printmaking, typography, calligraphy, papermaking, design, and related fields; exhibitions; research; writers’ and artists’ residencies; and fellowships; Center for Book Arts advances the art and preservation of bookmaking. The 5,000-square-foot center features a well-equipped bindery and printshop studios which include a 19th century Washington hand press, in addition to 900 square feet of exhibition space which is open to visitors.

Center for Book Arts

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Park Avenue Trimming is a family-run leather goods and accessories manufacturer located in the heart of the city’s Garment District at 115 West 29th Street. One of the last and largest operating leather goods factories in the District, Park Avenue Trimming produces bags and accessories for luxury goods clients like Coach, Alexander Wang, and Shinola. The company which started in 2011 is an off-shoot of Park Avenue International, makers of the Pietro brand of handbags since 1982, and established by patriarch of the business Pierre Dabagh. In addition to Pietro, each of Pierre’s children now runs a handbag line out of the factory— Made by Alex, aNYbag Project, and Cut by Two—where sustainability and material waste reduction are the focus. Pierre’s eldest son Alex currently oversees all company operations.

Park Avenue Trimming

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Pentagram’s New York City office, stationed on the top two floors of a 12-story neo-gothic building constructed in 1911, is located at 250 Park Avenue South. The studio moved into their 23,906-square-foot digs in 2018. The office's interior architecture was designed by London-based William Russell Architects, whose principal is a former Pentagram partner.

photos by Jonathan Hokklo

Poster House, the country’s first poster museum, recognizes the often overlooked “poster” as art, cultural artifact, information disseminator, and commercial instrument. Poster House aims to improve design literacy among the public using their ever-growing permanent collection, temporary exhibitions, and other educational events.

In 2002, ICRAVE started off as a two-person design-build firm in the Meatpacking District while the neighborhood was still known mainly for the packing and distribution of meat. Subsequently, ICRAVE would become a central part of the neighborhood's transformation into a premiere nightlife destination as the firm designed and consulted on most of its high-profile clubs like Tenjune, STK, and Provocateur. Since then, the firm has worked on some of the most innovative design projects across the globe including JetBlue’s terminal at JFK airport, Amsterdam’s Sir Adam Hotel, Marquee (Singapore), and Disney Dream cruise ships.

The Self-Guided Journey platform was developed and curated by Valerie Hoffman and Maya Bayram. Written content for the Clinton Hill & Fort Greene, NoMad & Flatiron, and Harlem maps is by Michelle Duncan. As the Crow Walks' Patra Jongjitirat created the map illustrations; David Timoteo was involved with the design. James Eades, Steven Wisley, and Stephanie Couture captured and edited the video content. Thank you to the SVA Department of Design Research, Writing & Criticism for supporting this project.

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