Film director and architect Isay Weinfeld designed the interior of the new Four Seasons Restaurant at 280 Park Avenue in New York. His aim was to recreate the magical atmosphere of Philip Johnson's original Four Seasons Restaurant, while exploring the possibilities offered by the different spaces of the new premises.
Much of the grandeur of the original Four Seasons Restaurant lay in its symmetry and perfect proportions. Yet where previously the spaces’ distinct functions – bar, restaurant and events – conflicted, Weinfeld created unity by connecting the spaces with a golden passageway.
In the dining room, curved walls open to a rectangular jewellery box clad in bronze-coloured mesh made of knitted metallic yarns mounted in panels between the glass mullions. These filter the light entering through the glass facades. In the centre of the room are sofas, also designed by Weinfeld, in three different shapes and heights, along with leather and linen. The distinct characters of the bar and restaurant are expressed in the balance between the glass beads, hand blown and painted by artisans in Bohemia, which form the curtains enclosing the bar, and the high-tech metallic fabric that was mechanically knitted in the TextielLab and applied around the restaurant’s perimeter.
