On a recent Friday evening, in the Rem Koolhaas-designed room where senators and sheikhs rub elbows and the secret deals of the Cold War were brokered, a sweaty mass is grinding to Gasolina. Heineken bottles litter most surfaces. Over the Reggaeton thump is the chatter of at least 5 languages, all of them more slurred than they likely were a few hours earlier.
This is the North Delegates' Lounge, a private enclave in the United Nations headquarters. It is arguably the most exclusive bar in New York City. To enter, one must pass by guards through two metal detectors, two baggage scans, and three ID checkpoints. Plus, you have to know someone: access to the lounge is granted only to delegates and guests. (No name dropping your way in.)
When my delegate friend first told me about the lounge, I imagined something from a Hitchcock movie: people in dark suits perched on Eames furniture, whispering in mysterious accents over martinis. And in fact, the lounge made a cameo in North by Northwest, in the scene where the diplomat is stabbed in the back. Opened in 1952 the year the UN building was completed, the lounge was intended to facilitate the kind of cocktail-abetted discussions where, as much as in official committees, world issues are decided. Up until 2008, the lounge even allowed smoking inside despite New York City law, rumor has it for the benefit of the ambassadors who hadn't given up their cigar habits.
If all this wasn't enough to make me talk my friend into bringing me, there's also the fact that since 2009, the lounge has been closed for renovations as a team including architect Rem Koolhaas, designer Hella Jongerius, graphic designer Irma Boom, artist Gabriel Lester, and theorist Louise Schouwenberg (because why not have a token theorist?) worked their magic. It reopened in September 2013, part of a $2 billion renovation of the entire UN headquarters. The revamped lounge, a gift of the Dutch government, is meant to "create a podium for Dutch design and architecture," Jongerius told Disegno. In other words, everything from the curtain made of 30,000 porcelain beads to the "the world's largest electronic paper display sign" (read: a wall which displays scheduling info) was contemplated to the nth degree.
When I arrive at the corner of 1st Avenue and 43rd Street at 8 PM, my friend and his girlfriend are already inside the Le Corbusier-designed glass and concrete fortress. It takes approximately 20 minutes for him to emerge and for us to pass together through the security labyrinth. At one point, I surrender my ID and am given a badge with a photo of the space we're about to enter: a sun-filled, empty hall with towering ceilings. One wall made of glass looks onto a patio above the East River. The other is covered by tapestries bigger than I've ever seen outside the Met, donated by member countries.
According to Jongerius, who created much of the lounge's furniture and put together the design team, the renovation was planned around the idea that "all the real issues of the UN happen informally," she told DISEGNO. "The North Delegates' Lounge is the s
This is the North Delegates' Lounge, a private enclave in the United Nations headquarters. It is arguably the most exclusive bar in New York City. To enter, one must pass by guards through two metal detectors, two baggage scans, and three ID checkpoints. Plus, you have to know someone: access to the lounge is granted only to delegates and guests. (No name dropping your way in.)
When my delegate friend first told me about the lounge, I imagined something from a Hitchcock movie: people in dark suits perched on Eames furniture, whispering in mysterious accents over martinis. And in fact, the lounge made a cameo in North by Northwest, in the scene where the diplomat is stabbed in the back. Opened in 1952 the year the UN building was completed, the lounge was intended to facilitate the kind of cocktail-abetted discussions where, as much as in official committees, world issues are decided. Up until 2008, the lounge even allowed smoking inside despite New York City law, rumor has it for the benefit of the ambassadors who hadn't given up their cigar habits.
If all this wasn't enough to make me talk my friend into bringing me, there's also the fact that since 2009, the lounge has been closed for renovations as a team including architect Rem Koolhaas, designer Hella Jongerius, graphic designer Irma Boom, artist Gabriel Lester, and theorist Louise Schouwenberg (because why not have a token theorist?) worked their magic. It reopened in September 2013, part of a $2 billion renovation of the entire UN headquarters. The revamped lounge, a gift of the Dutch government, is meant to "create a podium for Dutch design and architecture," Jongerius told Disegno. In other words, everything from the curtain made of 30,000 porcelain beads to the "the world's largest electronic paper display sign" (read: a wall which displays scheduling info) was contemplated to the nth degree.
When I arrive at the corner of 1st Avenue and 43rd Street at 8 PM, my friend and his girlfriend are already inside the Le Corbusier-designed glass and concrete fortress. It takes approximately 20 minutes for him to emerge and for us to pass together through the security labyrinth. At one point, I surrender my ID and am given a badge with a photo of the space we're about to enter: a sun-filled, empty hall with towering ceilings. One wall made of glass looks onto a patio above the East River. The other is covered by tapestries bigger than I've ever seen outside the Met, donated by member countries.
According to Jongerius, who created much of the lounge's furniture and put together the design team, the renovation was planned around the idea that "all the real issues of the UN happen informally," she told DISEGNO. "The North Delegates' Lounge is the s