Text: Alec Coiro
Photo: Matthew Williams, courtesy of Radnor
Radnor is a new design line and gallery that works with a list of designers that is impressive and includes many names we’ve been fans of for some time. Radnor is helmed by Susan Clark, who has created an installation that resides in a brand new apartment in an as yet unopened building right on the edge of Bryant Park, aptly named The Bryant. Needless to say the view from the apartment is breathtaking, giving the interior design a lot to live up to; fortunately Clark is more than up to the task.
This showcase of everything one would want to furnish an apartment includes lighting by Workstead, who is a familiar collaborator for Clark and Radnor; “Workstead is like family to me,” Clark tells me. In the same spirit as Workstead, Clark’s philosophy attempts to bridge the gap between designer and maker. As Clark puts it, “They very much about livability and materiality, so they’re perfectly on brand for the ethos of Radnor, which is really about bringing the craft and methodology of making and the conversation of design and trying to integrate the two together.”
Many of the pieces are obviously gorgeous, as a photograph of them on their own will reveal. In every instance the aforementioned Workstead lighting stands out as a sculpture object before it has even lit anything up. Other pieces are put into a special relief by being placed in the showroom, revealing Clark’s curatorial eye. For example, the collection of spoons by Marie Eklund laid out on the table are simply beautiful (particularly for a family without small children!) The selection of plants and planters perfectly compliments both the interior and the lush/urban view out the window. The room is full of life from Tula House, Fox Fodder Farm, and elsewhere, which is displayed in planters and vases by Farrah Sit, Julianne Ahn, and BDDW (the BDDW planter presents a smart looking design solution to the perennial problem of wet floors after you’ve watered your plants)
The ethos of Radnor...is really about bringing the craft and methodology of making and the conversation of design and trying to integrate the two together.
These details of the showroom as a whole reflect the amazing detail found in many of the individual pieces themselves. A non exhaustive list of pieces with particularly nuanced details would have to include the Julianne Ahn planters I mentioned above, which are truly marvels to behold and obviously labors of both love and expertise. The Loic Bard bone chair, while not containing the type of details the eye gets lost in, are fantastically detailed in the sense that each chair in the series individuates itself with an identity unique from its cousins series, making them perfect for anyone seeking a humanized modernism. The details in the hand-crafted wall hanging by Oyyo would reward contemplation for however long you lived with it.
Of course, Radnor’s own pieces are central to what grounds the rooms and gives the space its identity, particularly in conjunction with the Loic Bard furniture and the Workstead lighting. If I had to pick a Radnor standout it would be the Mae Bed (made by Radnor with Adam Rogers). Clark credits the caned headboard to a southern influence, but it would seem at home in region where sound sleep in a soft, airy environment is appreciated.