As a design pitch for consideration, we created a fully immersive narrative experience for a New York Luxury Lounge - beginning from guest dropoff curbside, through entry and 4 distinct environments that will establish a viscerally transformative experience for guests. The objective is to create a multi-zoned venue for a Luxury VIP experience, with lounge areas, dining and live performances.
Guest are dropped off at a darkened back alley, in downtown Manhattan. The building exteriors are illuminated sculpturally to emphasize the looming industrial facades. The glistening street is ghostly vacant short of a few itinerant, dodgy night characters lurking in the shadows. Guests descend into a dimly lit, bare concrete hall, narrow and damp. A stairwell ascends three flights, illuminated only by poorly wired, flickering paper lanterns. Guests arrive on the 2nd floor, follow a narrow curtained hall, and step into a wildly stylized Chinese Laundromat doubling as the Hostess Welcome & Coat Check. Half Terry Gilliam, half Quentin Tarantino, seemingly endless racks of dry cleaning and overcoats line the space three tiers high. Massive chrome washing machines reflect the buzzing red glow of vintage neon signs. Guests are escorted through a curtained archway into a sultry, provocative nearly illicit speakeasy of the 1940's. The atmosphere is as plausible as if Prohibition-era bootleggers were to walk through the same door. Pressed-tin ceiling tiles, peeling lacquered wooden planks, antiqued mirrors and sparkling glass bottles of liquor reflect pinpoints of light from frosted shades above. At the appointed hour, guests walk through a slit black rubber curtain, and are welcomed into a resplendant, luxurious and sublimely elegant dining and performance space, evocative of the Rat Pack's Sands Hotel & Casino Ballroom in the 1950's. Lush draperies, sparkling chandeliers, a checkerboard tiled floor and seating for 120 envelop the room. A stage fit for Sinatra anchors the space, balanced visually with a central dance floor for performers and guests. In all, the narrative experience from curbside to entertainment is a transformative one, inviting VIP guests into an evening of provocative allure, intrigue and unexpected surprises.
