Iridium
New York, New York
Goethe suggested architecture was frozen music – but what if it was fresh from Lincoln Center orchestras, not quite frozen yet? What if we could walk beside Clara as she dreamed of the Nutcracker?
Iridium’s dining rooms and jazz club, just across the street from New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, plays on Goethe’s idea of musical synesthesia and the animation of architecture with dance… Copper roofs leap and twist, the ceiling undulates, cabinets assume ballet positions, images of music permeate the rooms…
Goethe suggested architecture was frozen music. The architecture of Iridium was not yet frozen, soft serve, still malleable. Copper roofs leaping and twisting. Inside, Clara’s dream meets Disney’s fantasia. The rooms are occupied by plaster interpretations of Alexander Rodchenko’s 1920’s constructivist costume studies, a millwork troupe of ballet cabinets, bronze and blown glass lamps plié, seating arches their backs wearing leg warmers and toe shoes, the floor a ceramic carpet of composer’s notes, railings suggestive of counterpoint.
In the details we find clarinet keys for music notes (16th note in second position), theater mask castings for happy sad for sidewalk café, chairs with leg warmers and toe shoes and arched backs, and chairs with bellbottoms and platform shoes.
In classical times columns represented male or female forms. Iridium’s columns riff on Alexander Rodchenko’s 1920’s
constructivist costumes. A troupe of cabinets practice arabesques and port de bras. One cabinet mirrors a table
lamp in a plie. Chairs arch their backs, wearing leg warmers and toe shoes. A ceramic carpet of chords and
counterpoint imagery is echoed in railings.
Credits
Design Architect / Interior Design: Jordan Mozer & Associates, Ltd
Lighting Design: Jordan Mozer & Associates, Ltd
Furniture Design: Jordan Mozer & Associates, Ltd
Graphics and Branding: Jordan Mozer & Associates, Ltd
Art Work: Jordan Mozer & Associates, Ltd
Product Manufacturing and Management: Mozer Studios
Photography: Babo of Paris
Architect of Record: David Turner