Showroom Shenanigans at Neptune Towers
Photo courtesy Tina Tilzer.
What happens when you get a furniture showroom store to design your lobby?
You get a furniture showroom.
That's what happened at the 152-unit Neptune Towers co-op in Nassau County. "The board was looking to save money," recalls Diane Logan, the board representative. "The previous board hired a residential furniture company that's in the area that said they decorated lobbies. They went with this company and basically everything that they picked clashed with the building, both in color and in style."
It was 2013, and Logan had just joined the lobby redesign committee. She was surprised by what she saw. "The [lobby's] wallpaper clashed with the existing elements within the building, both in color and in style. We have a mid-century modern building and everything that was picked out was a residential traditional format. We have beautiful terrazzo floors that have the browns and the corals. They picked a medium-blue, striped wallpaper that clashed again in both color and in style. It looked residential. It looked like something you might do in your own living room."
On the practical side, the furniture showroom designer hadn't used the more durable contract materials typically employed in furnishings and fabrics in public spaces. Additionally, the furnishings were not to scale for a public area.
Because Logan had so clearly articulated what was wrong with the lobby, the board asked her if she had any ideas on how to rectify the situation. She was soon tapped to supervise the redesign of the redesign, and work as a liaison. "Once the wallpaper went up, we stopped the whole project. None of the furniture had been opened up, so we didn't want anything touched until we had the opportunity to at least return the furniture and start from square one. Logan interviewed eight designers, and hired Tina Tilzer, a designer and owner of Art & Interiors. "She's amazing," says Logan. "She came in with a good portfolio. She knew her business. She was local to the area, as opposed to a lot of the designers that I was seeing that were from New York City. I knew I wanted somebody that was local who could also be onsite to do the project management as well as the design of the lobby. That's how I ended up with Tina. We were very lucky to get her." Over a three-week period Tilzer talked with the committee and ultimately created a new design, with two variations. The design committee placed the designs on display in the lobby, giving the residents ten days to vote on their choice. "It was pretty clear that everyone loved the new design," Tilzer recalls, "and they were excited to start work again." The lobby also has picture window in the back looking out on a garden. "We worked on landscaping that," Tilzer notes. "It was incorporated within this project; I worked with a landscaper, and we did outdoor benches. We worked with lighting. That was really interesting.But the most fun and the most dramatic change was the artwork that I used. I'm all for artwork. I love highlighting artwork in public spaces. That really made a huge difference; I used huge pieces. It's a very big lobby." The project, which Logan says cost "anywhere between, say, $110,000 and $150,000," went smoothly, beginning on April 15 and ending on November 1, 2015. The contractors, who were recommended by Tilzer, were Aristocrat Painters and Double R Contracting, which did all the electrical work and woodwork. Logan was full of praise for both contractors: "They did a great job."