Split across the first two stories of the practice’s 425 Park Avenue tower, Four Twenty Five includes a cocktail lounge, private dining room and a mezzanine dining level, with a glass fronted show kitchen and bespoke lighting installation.
Diners enter the restaurant via a cocktail lounge on the first floor of the building and ascend to the mezzanine dining level, via a sweeping feature staircase. The timber-panelled dining level cantilevers over the lounge to create a more enclosed and intimate environment at the bar. A 24-foot painting by the celebrated American artist Larry Poons runs the full length of the wall behind, animating the space with color and movement. Adjacent to the lounge, a separate dining room offers a private area for parties and events. The dining room is flexibly designed and can be easily divided into two smaller private spaces or opened up to create one larger event space.
The mezzanine dining level provides 80 covers and features a glass fronted show kitchen, allowing diners to watch their food being prepared. Above their heads hangs a bespoke lighting installation, comprising 231 Foster + Partners designed ORSA fixtures in a three-dimensional elliptical configuration, which was developed with the practice’s in-house Applied R+D team.
A bespoke collection of furniture, the NF Collection, is used throughout the space. Designed by Norman Foster and Foster + Partners Industrial Design, in collaboration with the leading Japanese furniture manufacturer, Karimoku, it is characterised by the flowing lines of timber frames. The collection includes a chair, bar stool, lounge chair and sofa, made in walnut and burgundy leather for Four Twenty Five. Sharing the same distinctive smooth and organic form, each item has been manufactured by Karimoku’s state-of-the-art woodworking machines and hand-finished meticulously by artisan craftsmen.
