Revel in New York
A look at the city through its people
Jim & Hester
Interior Designers
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Jim Walrod is a self-taught designer and design consultant who’s been dubbed "The ultimate design raconteur" by André Balazs. He started collecting furniture and accessories as a kid and eventually accumulated enough stuff to furnish his entire apartment as a replica of the 1943 Museum of Modern Art’s "Good Design" exhibit.
As a professional, Jim is considered an expert in the field of mid-century design and his projects have ranged from designing hotels like The Standard in LA and The Thompson LES in New York, to consulting on period furniture for Ang Lee’s film, "The Ice Storm".
Jim's career began in the 90’s, when he co-owned the now defunct, Form & Function store with his partners, Jack Feldman and Fred Schneider of the B-52’s. It was here where he met Mike D of the Beastie Boys, who entered the store in search of rare designer lamps. This encounter led to a friendship with Mike D, who referred to Jim as his "Furniture Pimp" in an issue of Rolling Stone, as well as a design job with Mike’s art collecting mom, Hester, that would challenge Jim's concept of taste and change the way he approached design forever.
For more information on Jim visit his webpage here.
Design & Art
DESIGN
Partners & Spade - “This is the most important store in downtown New York. It’s a design shop and gallery and I am completely floored by the selection and range. Everything is on a continuous rotation and there is nothing like it in this city or any other.” - Jim
Droog - “When you walk into Droog you don’t feel like anything is for sale. It's like a retrospective of their own work. Everything is better than the next and everything they design is important to the lineage of design.” - Jim
"Some guy walked into my store and was looking at my best pieces of 60’s and 70’s conceptual furniture that you could imagine, and this guy said, “Is this children's furniture?” I was like oh my God, this is never gonna work out for me, never ever ever." - Jim
Moss - “Moss goes above and beyond the call of duty. Even at a time when not many folks aren't spending $6,000 on a chair, they manage to introduce new and interesting things while bringing down the prices. Designers and artists are always in there.” -Jim
"Moss had a lot of stuff I wanted and were very helpful. Jim would find something and it would be buried in their warehouse but they'd always dig it out and either bring it to the store or once in a while they would bring it to my home." - Hester
Karim Rashid - "Karim Rashid's doing great things. We have a pair of his lamps and he is one of the only North American designers we used at all." - Hester
Karim Rashid - SOURCE
"In the United States, if you want to be a designer you either go into product design and pray that somebody picks you up at a trade show, or you decide that your furniture is either art or craft and that’s it. There’s no design movements, there’s no nothing." - Jim
Nick Dine - "Nick Dine designed several pieces for me where there weren’t production pieces that suited me. His studio did all the detail work, which there was a huge amount of in a job this size. He did my rugs and my coffee tables." - Hester
Johnson and Kelly - "Johnson and Kelly are designers who started their collaboration designing a massive light that hangs over the bar at the Four Seasons. They also designed an extremely rare floor lamp that Hester has three of. If you're looking to get into design these guys are a good place to start." - Jim
Marcel Breuer - "Hester had a summer house that was a barn that Marcel Breuer designed for her. Marcel also designed the Whitney." - Jim
Gordon Bunshaft - "Gordon Bunshaft and Hester are really good friends. He was a partner in Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and he built a lot of the Manhattan's great buildings. His masterpiece in New York is the Lever House." - Jim
Ikea - "Ikea is the only design movement that successfully got tasteful and affordable design furniture into the homes of everyday Americans. It has turned people on to design. I have seen cabinets there that rival anything you might find in a high-end home. They're the most important design movement since Bauhaus, in fact Ikea even works better than Bauhaus.” - Jim
Nile Rodgers - "I remember I saw Nile Rodgers on TV and he was talking about taste with the interviewer and he was saying 'that the second you start to make good money, you go out and buy art deco...and then you start to learn about taste'." - Jim
"My favorite Beastie Boys album is Paul's Boutique, what can I say? I just love it." - Hester
Le Poisson Rouge - "It is the most extraordinary mix of hipster and anti-hipster that you could imagine. It’s where the Village Gate used to be and I think it’s the same old furniture the Village Gate used to have. It’s absolutely fascinating because it’s such an introduction to the new of every kind, and it works so well with all these different audiences." - Hester
ART
"The first time I came to Hester's, the door opened and every question that I had prepared just went away, because I walked in on this bomb of Hester sitting there surrounded by Picasso, Brancusi and Kandinsky on the walls!" - Jim
Kandinsky - SOURCE
Astro Minerals - "For my most recent collection, I’ve been buying mineral specimens. I just find them extremely beautiful and there’s something amazing about the fact that they are entirely out of nature. My mineral dealer is John Trinchillo of Astro Minerals at Madison and 34th Street." - Hester
Janet Borden Gallery - “Janet Borden is the best. She's adventurous in every way and has successfully carried the spirit of what Soho is about. She supports artists and I am a really big admirer of her for that.” - Jim
Work by Fred Cray, Janet Borden Inc.
Jim & Hester's NYC
PLACES & SITES
"The glory of New York is not the interiors and it’s not the individual buildings, but it’s the ensemble, the ensemble is just extraordinary and there’s something about this crazy jumble of styles with totally fake French Renaissance here, and a tutor over there and then international style and lots of Deco all over the place. When you put them all together they have a terrific kind of vitality, which is really the vitality of the city." - Hester
"The thing about New York City is that it's amazing wherever you look. You see the Pan-Am building there, then you got the Seagrams building over there, and you’ve got Lever House there and then you look straight ahead and you’re hit with Grand Central Station. And, there’s a language of this town and the way that it constantly either eats itself, feeds itself or grows, that is unique and unlike any other city anywhere." - Jim
Pan Am Building - Source: Photo by Meredith L. Clausen
Chase Building - “This is one of the most beautiful buildings that I’ve ever seen anywhere. There's a Harry Bertoia sculpture here that’s one of the largest ever commissioned and they have a gigantic vault door that used to open up and reveal the cash held by the bank. Very cool.” - Jim
Chrysler Building - "If I were sending people to see interiors of buildings in New York, I would certainly send them to the lobby of the Chrysler building." - Hester
FOOD
Elaine's - "I always wind up at Elaine's. It'll be me, Big Elaine Kaufman, a bunch of 75 year old guys that were really hip at one time, my girlfriend and three other younger people that really don’t want to be there." - Jim
Elaine's - Source: Photo by Larry Fink/Robert Klein Gallery
Big Nick's - "I love diners especially Big Nick's on 71st Street. Midnight Cowboy was filmed there and I go there all the time." - Jim
The Viand - "The Viand is good place to go and I go there all the time." - Jim
Vincents - "I love every tourist trap that you could possibly imagine. There’s not one single hipster anywhere near it. When you’re at Vincents, you’re having Calamari next to German Tourists who read about how Crazy Joe Gallow got shot there and I just love that." - Jim
Balthazar - "I used to eat at Balthazar with Hester and it was so loud that she would have to pretend as if she understood every single word I was saying." - Jim
"But they have calves liver, good calves liver." - Hester
Balthazar - Source: www.1440wallstreet.com
The Minetta Lane Tavern - "The Minetta Lane Tavern is pretty great. They have the most incredible hamburger you could ever possibly imagine." - Jim
Knickerbocker - "I love to eat at the Knickerbocker because there's nobody under 70 there. I remember Hester and I had calves liver and green mashed potatoes for St. Patrick's day, which was kind of creepy but really good." - Jim
"Now Knickerbocker, there’s a great New York place!" - Hester
Four Seasons - "There’s a couple of places in New York that are still sort of invisible. I don’t understand why people would eat in some of those restaurants when they can go to the Four Seasons. The greatest part of the Four Seasons is that you go there, and if you do any type of design work or anything, you start to think that I’m never gonna be that good. Thank God nobody comes here or I’d never get hired again." - Jim
"The food at the Four Seasons is also really good and it’s heavenly quiet." - Hester
HOTELS
Thompson LES - “It’s weird the way people keep reviving things in New York. Thompson LES is a modern hotel and a serious piece of architecture that has incorporated art into the design. I'm the first person that Lee Friedlander ever licensed his work to and we present his photos in huge light boxes in every room.” - Jim
SOURCE
Gild Hall - “My work at Gild Hall has been quite rewarding. This is the first boutique hotel on Wall Street. It was an old men's club which made it fun to play around with. Gild Hall was a huge success and won the Michelin award.” - Jim
SOURCE: mymotels.com
What do you think?
Posted by BnT102
Huh? Seriously??
For 'A': Wow! Seriously?? Jim Walrod is a genius. He continuously delivers interiors that not only meet but exceed his eclectic, diverse clientele's expectations, many of whom themselves are style-setters, & live much differently that you or I, and by my guess, than the type of clients you work with. His hospitality and restaurant projects are sought after, award worthy, highly publicized & respected amongst of the best of the best in the industry-worldwide. Additionaly he is a living/breathing design encyclopedia who's in-depth knowledge of the history & function of design goes way beyond courses at community college. This, fused with incredible talent & intuition, create an aesthetic far superior to the junk Greenwich housewife Decorators sift through at the D&D.
And yes, American design is dead, & I fear that Mr. Walrod is one of the last greats. His work is inspirational, relevant, and impossible to duplicate. Taste aside, Hester Diamond’s residence it is about art and artistry, & clearly this level of artistry is way over your head & not something you could better comprehend if ‘So Whatcha Want’ was playing in the background. I wish you luck on creating what you feel is 'good work'. And remember, simply being able to pick out bullion fringe doesn’t make someone a designer.
Posted by A
Uh-huh
Hmm... I'm really curious as to what set you off, who you are and why you are so angry. To make things clear, I highly respect Jim Walrod as a designer and admire his work. However, the project featured in this video really confused me and I agree with Jim in that it could've been a "career ender." You're obviously savvy of the "scene" but I suspect you and I are of completely different generations - I don't do fringes.
I wish you luck in your work and your internet rampages.
Posted by Anonymous
huh
i think your missing the point, both of these people have worked within the field of taste for a long time ,Mr Walrod has done tasteful spaces for every taste makers in the business its about going beyond whats warm ,safe and inhabitable and creating something that groundbreaking ,BRAVO
Posted by boob
"Mid Century Modern"
I liked her comment about mid-century modern - "been there done that". It seems like now-a-days, everybody with some money and a designer or everyone that thinks they have taste has a home decorated in wall to wall Eames, Stark, etc. Which, is fine but it's getting kind of old. He made that comment below about Nile Rodgers (who's the man BTW) which I think nailed this point really well. I like what they did. It's original and they knew the concept was not supposed to work at all. But I think it does. It could help that the walls are decorated with a bajillion dollars of some of the most beautiful Renaissance art in existence. That said, Ill Communication is the best B-Boys Album. Word.
Posted by hot22
Ill Communication
On your point, I will say I would've LOVED to have heard that played in this piece HOWEVER, Mr. Boob, you've failed in your duty to show the artist and his work in a way that exemplifies his message.
RE: Mid-Century Modern
You're right it's a go-to standard for clean, comfortable surroundings... HOWEVER, Mr. Boooooob, you've failed AGAIN to supply us with a reason for going against standards that work.
Lastly,Paul's Boutique is the best B-boys album HANDS DOWN.
HEY LADIES!!!
Posted by Stevie B
Chairs
Who designed the chairs they're sitting on? I need to get me some of those.
Posted by James Keenan
Designers
I think this piece fits in nicely with the others. Again revel introduces us to a couple eccentric, yet very interesting subjects. I like the aspect of thinking one thing about you taste at one point in your life, then stepping back and saying let's do something different. I think taste changes over time, and after a while you can get bored or want something new. I think it's actually quite intriguing to go from a modernist look, to something more classical. They juxtaposition of the room in her place is quite amazing to me. I never heard of anything quite like it. I think just sticking to one genre or look for the rest of your life would be boring. What an undertaking and quite a story. Great work!
Posted by Anastasia
Huh???
Hi guys,
Love your work but very confused by this piece.
As an interior designer who is struggling to make it out there creating sophisticated, warm and inhabitable spaces, i am not quite sure how to interpret this segment. It feels like a blow to the rest of us striving to make good work while this shows sensational eccentricity lacking taste and good decisions. Ultimately it's all about choices, and this may merely be our disagreement over taste. An appearance by Mike D or his music in the background might have helped me make sense of it all.
Still love you,
a.
Posted by car coat
huh???
Huh ??? what kind of clients do you work for ? this is the story of a client of extreme taste and a designer of acclaim who could have fallen into the trap of doing a sophisticated,warm and inhabitable space but was pushed to go beyond that by the client , look at the apt. its a work of art ! good luck inflicting your idea of good taste on clinents that dont know any better
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Posted by wids
Hester and Jim
this is my favorite piece that you guys have done . just wonderful . thanks