SPRING '06 DESIGNER INTERVIEW
Americana Manhasset’s architect Peter Marino is a name synonymous with the sort of breathtaking, luxury stores that evoke emotion and elevate the mere act of shopping.
It was Andy Warhol, whose famed Factory was Marino’s first commission, who introduced the architect to a bold-faced crowd in the mid-seventies. His early clients are now icons, such as society swan Marella Agnelli and fashion genius Yves Saint Laurent.
Though Marino initially resisted designing stores, the architect’s body of work now reads like an inveterate fashion lover’s shopping list: Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Fendi, Dior and Valentino. And for them, he broke new ground by creating innovative building materials and by making modern architecture feel sumptuous, instead of spartan. Americana Manhasset sat down with the forthright native New Yorker to chat about his work, the meaning of luxury and the importance of art.
PM: When I first started, there were these huge companies in Columbus, Ohio who did all the retail work. They used to quote fees by the square foot. That’s how unserious it was. It was really Fred Pressman from Barneys who broke this mold. His idea was to engage serious designers. It wasn’t just me. He had this whole lipstick bar that was done by Andree Putman. Then architecture became part of the branding of these companies. Now, if you stand in a Chanel store, you understand what Chanel is about. If not, they’re not happy with the design. The store became part of the branding.
PM: We have in our office for each brand what we call a war room. The first thing
I get from a client is the whole product line. You’re not going to understand the DNA of the brand unless you understand the product. I demand their advertising campaign so that I can be in sync with the attitude. I immerse myself in the history. I also like to understand, for example, that Vuitton is a 150 year-old luggage company. So then I’ll say, okay I’ll put floating suitcases all over the place, and it will be in your mind like a thought.
PM: There isn’t any designer that I haven’t clicked with. I get along enormously well with them because I get along with anybody who thinks with their eyes before their brains. It’s really not about words. Then there are personalities with whom I can have more fun. Donna Karan is a hoot, I have to say. She has 10,000 ideas inside coming out all at once. It’s a great way to do it because you can’t spend your life like a clam and spit out one pearl.
PM: Luxury is about space, a feeling of space. You don’t feel luxurious if you’re cramped. I don’t care what you tell me, I’ve never been on a yacht in my life that felt luxurious to me because I’m always cramped. Except Valentino’s yacht which has a sporty kind of ease to it. Then you need the time to enjoy the space. That’s really hard. Mad-dashing through eight stores is not luxurious. Having time to exhale and enjoy the space is, which means the architect is going to pace things and give you the time to look at something.
PM: It’s the cornerstone. I involve artists in everything I do, on the inside of stores or outside like with sculpture. Americana Manhasset has sculptures all over. Now, for the Chanel boutique that I did in Hong Kong, the outside of the building is going to be an artwork. We hired Michal Rovner, the Israeli artist who films people walking, in this case it’s from above. She’s woven her images together for Chanel in a special commission. The people cross back and forth until it starts looking like the original tweed of Chanel. Then it gets exaggerated and then it just goes black. It starts again in twenty minutes as an all-white building. For the first time, the building itself is art. My line is always, ‘Listen, we know who’s famous for doing the Sistine Chapel – and it ain’t the architect.’
PM: I think the Seagram Building, which was done [by Mies Van der Rohe] in 1958, is a perfect example of what I try to achieve. Has there ever been anything as elegant and timeless as that? No. In 2000 years when you look back, there’ll be nothing like the Seagram Building. The masterpieces from that era, because of their simplicity and lack of trendiness are what I emulate. I would love if people would look at anything that I’ve done, even twenty years later, and say that it looked good.
PM: I went out there and walked the center with him and he said, ‘This is not where
I want this place to be in 20 years. I need one aesthetic vision and if you accept, you can have that amount of control.” Well there’s nothing that an architect likes better than hearing the "C” word. Once I got that, it was a shoo-in. Now, I think architecturally, it could go to an even higher plane of being what I call the leadership category of producing real landmarks. It’s already moving in that direction.
