One of Giorgetti’s latest creations is not at the Italian furniture maker’s New York Design Center showroom on Manhattan’s Lexington Avenue, but rather in a penthouse residence on the 20th and 21st floors of the storied Plaza Hotel at Fifth Avenue and Central Park South. The aforementioned creation amounts to more than $500,000 worth of furnishings—some introduced as recently as this spring in Milan—that the 113-year-old company customized and handcrafted for the 5,600-square-foot duplex, which was completed in May and listed that same month for $24 million.
“We believe that the privacy of a prestigious setting, where the Giorgetti style is fully enveloped in a real-life situation, is the best way to experience the brand,” says Patrizio Chiarparini, director of the company’s North American division. “Our client is looking for and deserves a more intimate and customized buying experience.” The Plaza penthouse marks the first such project for Giorgetti, which invited architects and designers and their clients to tour the residence and which plans to outfit additional properties in New York and others in Italy and Belgium.
Giorgetti worked with Plaza owner Elad Properties and GNA Architects, both New York firms, to design the Central Park–view residence, where chandeliers and accessories by Venini and artwork by Mario Arlati complement the furniture. GNA Architects’ founder Gal Nauer traveled to Giorgetti’s factory in Brianza, Italy, to select the pieces, including the swiveling Arabella chair ($5,000 to $7,500)—a new design that gestated for a decade in the mind of company president Carlo Giorgetti, great-grandson of the firm’s founder. A red-velvet version of the contoured seat sits at the bottom of the penthouse’s staircase, echoing the railing’s graceful line. In the library, the NEA bookshelves (starting around $4,500) by Chi Wing Lo—one of several architects including Léon Krier and Massimo Scolari who have designed for Giorgetti—embody the furniture maker’s focus on shaping fine woods into fluid, sensual forms that belie the hardness of the materials. Nauer paired the shelves with the recently introduced Erasmo desk ($37,000 to $44,610) by Scolari.
Altogether Nauer drew from Giorgetti’s 150 collections to furnish the Plaza residence with a range of pieces, many of which marry fine solid woods and supple leathers. (Prices for the company’s sofas, beds, tables, and other items vary depending on the desired wood, upholstery, configuration, and finish, but generally they range from about $1,800 for a dining chair to upwards of $150,000 for a custom closet system.) However, those wishing to browse among the items in the Plaza residence will instead have to settle for seeing similar pieces in the nearby showroom. According to the Wall Street Journal, the furnished penthouse sold in July to casino mogul Steve Wynn for about $23 million.
Giorgetti, 212.889.3261, www.giorgettiusa.com
