Inside Third & Bond: Week 100

The Third & Bond bloggers from Hudson Companies celebrate their centennial post with some fun news about a collaboration with a crew of Pratt students.

Unbeknownst to you, dear reader, we’ve been working on an unique collaboration with the fantastically talented students, faculty and alumni of Pratt Institute. That hallowed institution of art and design, located in our own Brooklyn, has put together conceptually innovative and aesthetically stunning furnishings for our two model residences. Everything — floor and wall coverings, home accessories, furniture, textiles, art, lighting elements, fashion designs, and more—has been designed by Pratt fine artists, designers, and architects.

We began working with Pratt a little less than a year ago. The original seedpod of the idea was that we wanted to dress the two model units in a style that spoke to a range of potential buyers and befit the classy modern design of Rogers Marvel. At first, shelter magazines like the dearly departed domino and ever popular dwell came to mind. From that line of thought sprouted a desire to collaborate locally and with one of the best design institutes in the country…

We met with Pratt’s Director of Corporate Relations and Executive Director of Public Relations to explore the idea. Before we knew it, they were throwing out names of alumni, faculty and students who could be involved. Eva Zeisel, Bruce Hannah, Bill Katavolos, Giovanni Pellone, the names kept coming. They also knew the perfect person to curate and coordinate the endeavor, Pratt Professor of Architecture and Alumnus Anthony Caradonna.

In the next couple of months we met to put together a design brief. The brief detailed our concept of doing eco-friendly furnishings (suitable for our LEED-Gold and Energy Star certifications), but with an eye toward luxury for the 3-bedroom duplex and an eye toward affordability for the 2-bedroom floor-through. We came up with characters who would live in the units. The family living in the duplex includes two daughters who love to play soccer; they drive to Fairway as a family to shop for groceries. In the 2-bedroom, lives the graphic designer and photographer who are just about ready to turn their study into a nursery.

Using these descriptions as a basis, Caradonna began culling items to be borrowed from alumni and working with faculty and students to produce new work specifically for display at Third + Bond. The pieces are wonderful. So much so that Pratt insisted on including a clause in the contract that would allow students to take their prototypes out of the models temporarily for presentations to manufacturers and the like.

The duplex 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom model with private yard is furnished in clean-lines, natural wood, glass, and metal. The color scheme is primarily blue, with abstract, organic patterned textiles and wallpaper inspired by locally grown oysters and created by Pratt students. The apartment is outfitted with GROW, an ivy-like solar and wind panel system designed by Pratt alumni and acquired by The Museum of Modern Art in 2008.

Elements of the 2- bedroom, floor-through model residence include eco-conscious designs made from natural and recycled/recyclable materials that reflect a playful and affordable modern design sensibility. Caradonna selected objects that rely on no-waste design. The home accessories, artwork, and textiles incorporate natural and urban imagery through silkscreened images of neighborhood trees and Brooklyn architectural themes. The color-scheme and custom-designed wallpaper are inspired by the variations of greens and reds found in historic street maps of Brooklyn from the 1920s.

For most of our projects, we hire an interior decorator to stage a model unit. The usual preoccupation is with being neutral enough that buyers don’t leave thinking about how they didn’t like the couch. If they don’t like the kitchen, well, that’s one thing, but the furnishings shouldn’t create such an impression that buyers can’t imagine themselves in the space. Even so, the furnishings need to be lively enough to show off the features of the space. We’ve had models that were nice, if conservative. We’ve had bold models with ceiling to floor orange curtains and a chandelier in a lime green closet. But we hadn’t experienced working with design students. We were a little worried that the creativity of the students would overshadow the units a giant pink elephant couch, a laser-show bed, that kind of thing. Turned out not to be a problem at all. As Caradonna reminded us, part of the exercise is for students to learn to show restraint of their wildest impulses in order to deliver for the client—hopefully something better than the client was able to envision.

But don’t take our word for it, starting in October, we’ll open up for you to come see for yourself.

Inside Third & Bond: Weeks 1-99 [Brownstoner]
The complete offering terms are in an Offering Plan available from Sponsor. File No. CD080490. Sponsor: Hudson Third LLC, 826 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.