Yabu Pushelberg  (italics0
By William Norwich, Edited by Carolyn Horwich and Anthony Iannucci
Architecture Interiors Press Publishing
Reviewed by Erika Heet

Clad in a serene, deep blue that gives little indication of the treasures within, the first monograph from New York and Toronto-based design team Yabu Pushelberg opens with an image of precariously stacked, shiny metal suitcases and trunks against an onyx marble background (a vignette from the Hazelton Hotel in Toronto). It is a statement that asks, nay, demands, that the readers give themselves wholly to the world of supreme juxtaposition — and pleasant surprise — that they are about to unfold. Neither petite nor oversize, the substantial yet easy-to-handle book is big on images and skinny on text, save for six essays by William Norwich, a Vogue(ITALICS) contributing editor and the former style and entertaining editor of The New York Times Magazine(ITALICS). Each of Norwich’s whimsical essays peels back another layer of mystery about the firm, made up of George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg, who have been partners, both personally and professionally, for nearly three decades.

After a certain point, all relationships either fizzle or flourish, and this book makes clear that the pair’s collaborations fall into the latter category. Their work runs the gamut from hotels (the Four Seasons, Tokyo; the St. Regis, San Francisco) to restaurants (Primehouse New York, Shibuya) to luxury boutiques (Carolina Herrera, Tiffany & Co., Kate Spade) to private homes. Their interiors are recognizable, yet impossible to categorize. They can do noisy, with electrified Lane Crawford stores in Beijing and Hong Kong, and they can do quiet, at the more understated Louis Vuitton VIP suites in Hong Kong, where the crème de la crème select their next “it bag” in perfect comfort. Their designs are sometimes naughty, as in the alligator-sheathed barstools at One in Toronto, and sometimes nice, in the case of the pressed-mesh butterflies surrounding fashion accessories at Lotte, in Busan, Korea. And, no matter who you are, it is impossible not to be reduced to oohs and aahs at the sight of the delightfully infernal red lounge at the Graves 601 Hotel in Minneapolis.

When any body of work is put together in one place, patterns emerge, cohesion and diversions come to light, and artist and audience alike are enlightened. To help achieve this enlightenment, the spaces in this book are not directly presented as individual projects one after the other; rather, they are interspersed throughout the pages, meandering and returning in a natural, unforced rhythm. Staircases speak the same language, woods are always impeccably utilized, design elements appear to levitate in different ways and shapes take on new meaning. The firm’s mastery of illusion, subdivision and architectural design arises from one page to the next, as each jumps from boutique to restaurant to bar to hotel to home.

But it is the private residences, including the design team’s own Manhattan apartment, that are perhaps the most intriguing, and exemplify what Norwich calls “restrained, refined luxury.” The residential commissions are where the pair can take the time — and the space — to make a continuous, personal design statement, whether it is a huge industrial lamp hovering above clean-lined wood furniture or a bauble-encrusted deer’s head offset by travertine floors, carefully chosen modern and contemporary pieces and soothing white sheers. These are the ultimate Yabu Pushelberg spaces, seen only by a lucky few — until now.