The bridge between public and private space requires a delicate balance of aesthetics and transforming lobbies, hallways, and amenity spaces with a creative flair is a specialty of Susan Lauren, Partner and Principal Designer of Lauren & Chase Design Group, Inc. Lauren often combines natural elements with site-specific visual art to create distinctive and inviting spaces for cooperatives, luxury rentals, and condominiums throughout Manhattan and the tri-state area.
A graduate of the New York School of Interior Design, Susan Lauren was known for her performances as a singer/dancer before becoming an NCIDQ certified, New York State licensed interior designer. She feels her designs take the stage now. With an affinity for the stylized hospitality designs by David Rockwell, whose work is also influenced by his former life in theater, Lauren creates chic understated environments that offer a fresh, sensory experience. While Rockwell works primarily with restaurants, hotels, and events where wild inventive themes are expansive, Lauren’s hospitality work is more subtle due to the residential nature, yet always innovative and unique.
As a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Associate, Lauren is acutely aware of ecological issues, safety, and responsible use of sustainable organic materials including stone and wood. Her creative voice resonates with multiple textures from smooth to rough and solids mixed with patterns to form an elegant fusion of nature with human touch. Drawn to clean, modern, and architectural elements, Lauren’s work also blends stylistic elements to keep the design alive and exciting, and to avoid short-lived trends. Her design for each concierge station as a highly functional art installation offers not only a visual statement for residents, but also reflects the style and service a prospective buyer or tenant can expect from the building. Staff members have been known to take extreme pride in caring for her unique desks, which also enhance their working environment. Interweaving every facet, including built-in architectural elements, lobby furniture, carpets/floor tile designs, wall coverings, mirrors, and lighting fixtures to reflect the client’s needs, she echoes those rhythms, textures, tones, and shapes in the elevator cabs, mailrooms, and amenity spaces such as roof decks and fitness centers.
Serene and meditative, the spaces are also energized by her eclectic selections of unexpected art pieces, furniture, and color. Location and demographics often inform style: while a building in Greenwich Village or the theater district might inspire a more contemporary expression, an Upper East Side high-rise could require a more conservative or traditional approach. For many of her designs, she commissions site-specific artwork based on her palette, scale, shapes, materials, and in some cases, the neighborhood itself. On a five-paneled screen, Mary Ann Fernandez was requested to paint an abstract of reflections on water for a Sutton Place lobby along the East River. Working with both individual artists and with galleries, such as Cheryl McGinnis Gallery in TriBeCa, New York, Lauren curates an art collection, rather than simply adding decorative accents. Having been commissioned by her through McGinnis for lobby paintings, I can attest to the insight Lauren brings to the process as a result of her own experience in visual arts. The artist, while retaining his or her own voice also enters the mind-set of a scenic designer as the character of the building and its inhabitants becomes an element in the painting.
Lauren contributed to the conversation about use of fine art in 2012, when, as a member of the Board of Directors of International Interior Design Association (IIDA) of New York, she coordinated and hosted the panel discussion, The Vital Role of ART to the Interior Designer: Making the Connection between Interior Design and Collectible Art. Moderated by Stephanie Buhmann Simmons, director of Jason McCoy Gallery, with distinguished speakers of various disciplines, including interior designers, Amy Lau and Mario Buatta, art dealer Jeanne Greenberg Rohaytn, and artist Laurie Simmons, a dynamic philosophical discussion followed about alternative uses for fine art in residential and hospitality venues. While Susan Lauren prefers to inspire the artist to communicate with her design of the space, residential designer Amy Lau often chooses an art piece as a point of departure for her shapes and colors; Mario Buatta only includes the owner’s existing private art collection within his work.
Perhaps a reaction to the current political and socio-economic flux and to the increasing number of young people purchasing apartments, Lauren has noticed a general trend towards replacing more traditional décor with clean modern lines. To keep up with the recent upswing in real estate prices, more buildings are opting for renovation to attract new residents and buyers, and Lauren & Chase has been expanding as the demand for work increases. You can visit www.lauren-chase.com for more information..u

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