British designer Lee Broom’s penthouse in New York draws inspiration from the city skyline while offering him a space to entertain and unwind in
Award-winning designer Lee Broom has always thought outside the box. Whether it’s presenting a collection from the back of a delivery van in Milan, filling an underground car park with over a hundred of his lights in Sydney, or making a movie featuring an orchestra to launch his Maestro chairs at last year’s London Design Festival, his past shows are known for their theatrical touches.
That creativity certainly came in handy recently, as pandemic restrictions forced the British designer to complete his penthouse in New York from the other side of the Atlantic. “I thought it would be impossible to do,” recalls Broom via Zoom from his converted fire-station home in London. “Then you’re put in this kind of situation where you have no choice, you just have to work in a different way.”
Working with his visualiser, Broom rendered every single item so his team in New York knew exactly where everything had to go. Through a combination of Zoom chats, and photos and videos sent over WhatsApp, he was able to fine tune the exact location of each piece. “In many ways it felt as if I was there,” he recalls. “It was quite bizarre, especially as the time difference meant I was working in the middle of the night. One morning I woke up and felt like I had actually been in the apartment.”
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