David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, home of the city’s philharmonic, was an exercise in helping to rebirth one of New York City’s most iconic institutions. Completed in 2022, Modellus Novus reimagined the concert hall’s preeminent hospitality spaces to more directly acknowledge and celebrate the history and communities that shaped the area, namely the Afro-Caribbean San Juan Hill neighborhood that was razed to develop Lincoln Center. Through the creation of welcoming and inclusive environments in both the building’s interior and iconic public plazas, the firm is making space for diverse, future generations of patrons.
The design of the new flagship restaurant Tatiana—namely the pairing of the ugly and the beautiful—is inspired by the spirit of the New York City of Chef Kwame Onwuachi’s formative years growing up in the South Bronx in the 1990s. Reflecting the cultural vibrancy of the city’s emerging hip hop and art scenes, Tatiana celebrates the chef’s admiration for a complex and contradictory era and city that formed his own identity, while creating an enduring part of that city’s present and future.
Photos by Adrian Gaut