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The handsome cast iron and brick building on the corner of West Broadway and Murray Street in Tribeca is the stuff of New York legend. You know, the kind that has a long history of occupants that seem borderline made up: candy makers, a medical journal, an aquarium store. Today, there’s a wine bar downstairs and a variety of independent renters working out of the six-story structure, dubbed the Gibbes Building. In March, the latest tenants set up shop: design studio General Assembly, helmed by founder Sarah Zames and partner Colin Stief.
Zames and Stief are affable and warm, not unlike the architecture and interiors they bring to life or the furniture and lighting they stock in their Brooklyn store, Assembly Line. In moving their studio to Manhattan, the duo had the opportunity to reimagine what their office might look like, and how it might better reflect their work to visiting clients. Interconnected rooms, built-in flat file storage, and a potential gallery space made a 2,000 square-foot, fourth-floor unit mighty appealing. “Walking into the space is immediately transportive and feels like experiencing a piece of old New York,” says Zames. They snapped it up immediately.
The pair inherited the place from architect Timothy Bryant, who had created a home-like atmosphere over the two decades he spent there. (He didn’t go far; just a few flights upstairs.) “The existing space led the way,” Zames says. “For us, it was about making sure our own aesthetic was layered onto it and being thoughtful about maintaining the character.” Out went the traditional-leaning yellow walls and white trim, in came saturated color, large-scale art, and plants on plants.
It’s no surprise that the space is full of bright ideas we want to steal for our own homes. Here, the duo gives us all the details on how they made the studio feel so much like the residences they design.
Look Down for Inspiration
The palette for the entire refresh had an unlikely jumping off point: the floor. The existing red-brown had gravitas, but it was chipping away and initially didn’t appeal to Zames and Stief.
But, Zames says, “it felt really good to honor Tom.” A fresh coat of a similar shade, Etruscan Red by Farrow & Ball, guided the rest of the paint choices and rich use of color in the space. By contrast, they wanted the gallery on one end of the unit to feel open and bright—all the better to see the inaugural show of lighting and furniture by Fern, on view through April 30.
Don’t Consider Paint Colors in a Vacuum
Much like in their residential projects, the partners used color and finish to differentiate between offices, a meeting room, and the gallery. In Zames and Steif’s office, textural, dark green grasscloth wallpaper draws you in, while a putty-hued ceiling brings your eye up. The swatch might convince you it’s too dark to stand in for white, but Steif notes that it’s important to think of colors in comparison to one another. “When you see the color next to this dark green, it looks like an off-white,” he says.
The rest of the small team works in a rosy room next door (swathed in Dead Salmon by Farrow & Ball), which is capped off with a ceiling slicked in Setting Plaster. This is also where the material library lives, housed in built-ins and flat file drawers that run nearly the length of the space. There is no better space to work on moodboards, Zames and Steif note. Combined with the natural light filtering in, the pink tones mimic the warm living spaces that General Assembly designs.
Zames extols the change from working in open floor plans: “I am so happy to have doors,” she says with a laugh. “Being able to create this moody space feels really private, comfortable, and cozy. We bought slippers for everybody because it feels really home-y.” (An editor’s plea: please make a run of General Assembly-branded slippers.)
Add a Skirt Above, Too
You could assume that a skirt would only underline the traditional vibe the designers were edging away from when redecorating. But when paired with earthy neutrals, unusual placement, and a playful pattern, you get an entirely different feeling. To conceal hard-to-reach storage in their office, the duo installed ochre fabric under picture lights against the muddy green backdrop.
Below, a beloved Gio Ponti textile keeps a fridge out of sight. After years of trying to work it into a client’s home, they decided to bring it into the offices. But it didn’t come cheap. “That was the most expensive thing in the project.”
Old Accents Can Be Upgrades
While they could have refinished the built-in desks that lined each space, Zames and Steif opted to keep them just as they were. Color-coordinating the legs to the wall color kept the scheme coherent, but the original glossy finish on top picks up light in the otherwise matte rooms.
Speaking of preserving: the door knobs, also installed by Bryant, stayed, too. Each one is unique—there’s crystal, brass, wood. Bryant’s idea was to give clients an idea of different materials and styles, but the designers felt the variation simply added to the home-like feel of the office. Ditto goes for several light fixtures they kept around; combined with vintage finds, new pendants, and furnishings from Assembly Line, everything jives together to feel like it’s been there for decades.
Let Your Art Do Its Thing
The work the duo have chosen to display in the Annex requires a more white-box approach: track lighting, no window treatments, no distractions. “It needs to be a vessel for people’s work,” Zames notes. In addition to curating shows for creatives they represent at Assembly Line and beyond, one of the things they are most excited about is that the office will effectively be a rotating gallery for Amélie du Chalard, a go-to gallerist for designers who has outposts in Paris and New York. “We get to show different artists’ work with clients here, and as things sell, they’ll get swapped out.” A gentle reminder of how workspaces can shift and collect layers over the years—just like a home.