Allied Works Architecture Reveals Re-Designed Eleven Madison Park

On October 8, 2017, Eleven Madison Park opens the doors to its newly redesigned home, following a comprehensive renovation by Allied Works Architecture.

Reflecting Allied Works' commitment to innovative and eloquent design across scales, the project encompasses the entire restaurant-from the interior architecture of the dining room to the creation of custom furniture, tableware, and textiles.

Developed in close collaboration with restauranteur Will Guidara and Chef Daniel Humm, the restaurant's co-owners, the redesign serves to further elevate the dining experience of the Three Michelin star-restaurant, recently named the "World's Best Restaurant."

"Our design aims to preserve and enhance the character and beauty of Eleven Madison's historic space and to celebrate the ritual of dining at every level," said Allied Works principal Brad Cloepfil. "Since I first met Will in 2008, I have watched his and Chef Daniel's vision for the restaurant crystalize-the warmth and precise attention to detail that result from Will's views of hospitality and Chef's elemental approach to food, where brilliantly concise and clear flavors are amplified through juxtaposition. The renovated Eleven Madison Park draws on these defining traits to create a unified dining experience-from food to fork, atmosphere to architectural envelop-and reinforces the restaurant's standing as a contemporary and timeless New York icon."

The renovation honors and enhances the original Art Deco design of the room, once the lobby of the landmark Metropolitan Life building, by preserving defining features and amplifying original detail and colors, with entirely new designs in the dining realm-including custom tableware, seating designs, and hand-tufted rugs, all designed for the restaurant by Allied Works. Upholding the restaurant's focus on ease and comfort, banquettes line the restaurant walls in intimate suites for two or four people.

The room's central promenade features two raised dining levels, defined by new, elegant painted metal dividing screens. The terrazzo flooring has been re-envisioned and the space enhanced with custom designs in warm palettes and textures, inspired by the building's Art Deco legacy and the original four leaves of Madison Square Park.

The restaurant's new additions include a completely reimagined bar with a material palette of leather, velvet, and light bronze, where guests can enjoy craft cocktails, drinks, and dinner in a space that is open to the dining room but defined by a distinct character and colors. The restaurant will also feature new commissions by leading contemporary artists.

"This dining room has been our home for the last 11 years; we have grown up within its walls, and have a very special and emotional connection to it. So when Daniel and I recognized that it was time to update its design, it was important that we selected an architect who brought an incredible aesthetic and differing perspective, but also one who loved the room as much as we did," said Will Guidara. "Brad is a dear friend, a loyal regular, and one of the most inspiring architects we have ever met-we couldn't be more proud to be working with him."

"I'm so excited to be working with Brad and the team at Allied because their approach to architecture is so similar to mine in the kitchen-it's not about adding more, but finding ways to strip things away, to keep it elemental," said Daniel Humm. "From the onset of this relationship we've seen eye-to-eye on what we all want Eleven Madison Park to become and it's really comforting to know that we are all working towards a shared goal. And for me, as the chef, the idea of serving the food in a room that is designed with the same philosophies that are applied in the kitchen is very special-it will bring a wonderful sense of harmony to a guest's experience."

Allied Works Architecture is a 40-person practice led by Brad Cloepfil from offices in Portland, Oregon and New York City. Guided by principles of craft and innovation, Allied Works creates designs that resonate with their specificity of place and purpose. The firm's practice is grounded in the belief that architecture provides meaningful new insight into its surrounding physical and ideological landscapes. Using a research-based approach, Allied Works distills the elemental principles that drive each of their projects and transforms these into material, shape, and structure-architectural designs that engage public imagination and amplify a city's cultural legacy.

Founded in 1994, Allied Works is widely recognized for its cultural projects, among them the Museum of Arts and Design in New York; the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado; the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; Seattle Art Museum; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in the Dallas Arts District; and the Schnitzer Center for Art and Design at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. Allied Works has also designed and completed private residences, offices, commercial projects and creative workspaces, such as: the design of Wieden + Kennedy Agency, which radically transformed a historic warehouse in Portland's Pearl District into a world headquarters that has become a benchmark for adaptive reuse and workplace architecture; the Dutchess County Estate in Stanfordville, New York; and Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California.

The firm recently marked the completion of the Uniqlo City, the international headquarters and flagship creative studios of Fast Retailing in Tokyo, Japan, and Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre of Canada, in Calgary, Alberta. Major current projects include the National Veterans' Memorial Museum in Columbus, Ohio, and the U.S. Embassy compound in Maputo, Mozambique.

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