Between 1935 and 1985, the design community in New York was thriving. Inspired by distinguished educators and promoted in style magazines and illustrated books, interior designers acquired elite status and social prominence, often equal to that of their illustrious clients.
When fashion-conscious urban professionals joined New York s Old World establishment, new modes of urban living evolved. Along with high-rise apartments, penthouses, and town houses, the downtown loft developed as a new genre for Manhattan luxury living. The challenges presented by these raw spaces led to inventive design solutions and decorative treatments.
New York Interior Design, 1935-1985: Masters of Modernism brings together over 250 photographs of exceptional interiors by practitioners who boldly challenged traditional concepts of design. Among featured designers are the iconoclastic Alan Buchsbaum, who pioneered such unorthodox concepts as exposed cooking areas, bathtubs out in the open, and was the first to treat old tin ceilings, pipes, and structural beams as decorative elements; the incomparable Barbara D Arcy whose trendsetting model rooms for Bloomingdale s electrified the 1960s and 1970s; the color virtuoso Juan Montoya; and the architectural firm Shelton, Mindel, known for elegant minimalist spaces approached with a curator s eye.
New York Interior Design, 1935-1985: Masters of Modernism is the companion volume to New York Interior Design, 1935-1985: Inventors of Tradition.
