February 21 2017 | By Mikki Brammer for METROPOLIS Magazine
Hospitality’s New Wave: Five American Studios To Watch
Ask Andrew Cohen and Jeremy Levitt of Parts and Labor Design to list the projects they’re working on and there’s a good chance your head will start spinning. Though their studio in New York’s Flatiron neighborhood is on the small side, their output borders on prolific, encompassing projects from Hong Kong to Savannah. It makes you wonder how they get any sleep (let’s just say that’s a work in progress).
It helps that the duo, who met working at AvroKO, have complementary skill sets—Cohen is an architect and Levitt is an industrial designer. “We’ve always worked back–to–back—that’s our thing,” says Cohen. “You need a yin and yang, a balance in the project, so that one person is pushing things to places that the other isn’t going to take them.”
Since they began their partnership in 2009, the gregarious twosome’s designs have shaped all manner of hospitality spaces, from restaurants and bars in New York to hotels in New Orleans and Nashville. What’s more, they also custom-design about 90 percent of each project, including furniture, lighting, and art installations. While it makes each job significantly more labor-intensive for the studio, it’s an essential part of their process. “Custom works are something thoughtful—objects that are edited and designed to solve a design or aesthetic problem in a way that purchased things wouldn’t,” Cohen says.
The Reunion team revels in creating these unexpected experiences. “Every project has its own zeitgeist and flavor,” says Dessertine. “We build very little redundancy into things, which isn’t the greatest business model, but it makes for really interesting projects that we really fall in love with.”
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Check out our other articles on hospitality’s new wave here!