FIRE ISLAND: Past, Present & Future
Sam Waterston’s Line in the Sand The Faces of Climate Justice Whales, Ahoy! Chelsea Flea Secret Spices in the East Village
EXPLORE THE NEIGHBORHOOD Head to the Seaport District and find everything from pop-ups and shopping to world-class dining at Pier 17. Bars and boutiques, art and epic views-whether you are dining in or taking out, it's all right here in Lower Manhattan.
SEAPORTDISTRI CT. NYC
DOWNTOWN
THE REFORMERS ON THE COVER AND THIS PAGE: Sam Waterston Photography by Andrew Matusik; Photography assistant: Cynthia K. Cortes; Location: Fayerweather Yacht Club, Bridgeport, Connecticut.
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52 09 11 12 13
From the Editor in Chief From the Founder From the Advisory Board Chair Contributors and Advisory Board
HUMANS 14 Power Player: Dino Fusco 16 Culinarian: Atef Boulaabi 18 Innovator: Alison Cutlan 20 Entrepreneurs: Eric Demby & Jonathan Butler
CULTURE 22 24 30 32 34
Viewfinder: Hanami Time Savoir Fare: Fish Story Chef’s Table: The Grey Area Imbibe: Cin Cin! Urbanity: See Your City
FEATURES 44 52 56 60 66 72
A Line in the Sand Island in the Sun Take the A Frame And Justice for All A Whale of a Tale Future Fashion
EN VOGUE 78 Hair: Frederic Fekkai & Shirin Von Wulffen 80 Timeless Beauty: Dr. Amy Lewis 83 Natural Skin: Philanthrobee 85 Fitness: Deep Dive 86 Fitness: Sets in the City 88 Last Word: Bob Lewis, Fulton Stall Market
72
SHELTER 36
Art Furniture
BUSINESS PLAN 38
Growing Green
LITTLE APPLE 40
Barclay’s Spot
24
66
Deborah L. Martin Editor in Chief
Creative Team Glyph.NYC Associate Editors Noemi Florea, Daniel Metz Fashion Editor Annaël Assouline Food Editor Fernanda Mueller Fitness Editor Lala Duncan Music Editor Alice Teeple Editor at Large Mike Hammer Multimedia Director Andrew Matusik Contributing Family & Lifestyle Editor Jessica Rovira Pet Editor Sheila Laughery Intern Lindsay Fiedler
CONTRIBUTORS TECHNOLOGY
Noel Y. Calingasan Bradley Kirkland/ David Cotteblanche Stone Soup Lala Duncan Michael Fiedler Nicole Haddad Matt Kapp Andrew Matusik Patricia Markert Isaac Namdar Artie Raslich Antoine Verglas
BUSINESS Grace A. Capobianco
Chief Executive Officer/Publisher Executive Vice President John ‘Cap’ Capobianco Executive Publisher, South Florida Will Candis Chief Financial Officer Jeff Fields Chief Operations Officer Luigi Rosabianca Advisor To the Publisher Andy Wheatcroft
Copyright 2021 by Downtown Media & Production Inc. All rights reserved. Downtown (ISSN2164-6198) is published four times per year in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter for $39 per subscription by Downtown Media & Production Inc., 380 Rector Place, Suite 15F, New York, NY 10280. Application to mail at periodical postage rates is pending at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Downtown, 380 Rector Place, Suite 15F, New York, NY 10280. Reproduction without permission of the publisher is prohibited. The publisher and editor are not responsible for unsolicited material. Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, photographs and drawings. To order a subscription, please visit downtownmagazinenyc.com. For customer service, please inquire at info@downtownmagazinenyc.com. To distribute Downtown, please email info@dtnycmag.com
Downtown Media & Production Inc. downtownmagazinenyc.com 8
DOWNTOWNNYC THE REFORMERS 2021
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY CATHERINE MCVAY HUGHES.
Finance & Tax Consultant Meir Spear, CPA
NO HATE,
NO WAY
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW MATUSIK
TO QUOTE THE BEATLES, “I read the news today, oh boy.” Throughout this pandemic year I have jokingly referred to my “home office” as “The Fallout Shelter,” and it has certainly felt that way for most of the past 12 months. It just so happens that I actually have one of those slightly ominous, black and gold, nuclear-era fallout shelter signs, which I found in the garbage in Chelsea, hanging over my desk. Apparently, a few years ago the City decided that it was misleading to call a building basement a fallout shelter so they started removing some of the corroding signs that were appended to thousands of buildings— remnants of the Cold War fever dreams that consumed the American public in the 1960s. The sign I found was in perfect condition so it was likely hanging in a hallway somewhere. I imagine that a lot of them ended up in the trash, but you can still see them on some of the older buildings in town. Anyway, there have been many times this year where some kind of bunker has felt necessary—and comforting. But what I have experienced in my own world pales in comparison to what the members of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community has experienced. Racism toward people of color is sadly not new, but there has been an escalation in hate crimes committed against AAPI people this past year, due to the rhetoric of the former administration with regards to COVID-19. (You will notice that I did not qualify my statement with soft words like ‘allegedly’ or ‘in part.’) All racism shocks me. Why do people expend so much energy hating other humans? I can’t understand it. There is no excuse for it that makes any sense at all. As William Shakespeare’s Shylock says in the Merchant of Venice, “If you prick me, do I not bleed?” Yes, and it’s all the same color—red. This issue is dedicated to our Reformers. And while we focused our attention on our waterways this Spring, we also reported on four organizations who are laser-focused on climate justice. Why? Because none of the problems we face as humans can be looked at in a silo. Climate change, systemic racism, the economy, health care, infrastructure... all interconnected, all parts of the larger survival of the species. Our waterways are a perfect example of the interconnectedness of life. Just ask Sam Waterston. His work with Oceana is about just that. We have had an abundance of sea life in our own New York Harbor lately, due to the health of our waters which has resulted in the return of critical feeder fish. If you build it, they will come. Patti Smith, a person I greatly admire, puts it this way: “We are all alive together.” Let that be our theme and our mantra. We all see the same sunset, breathe the same air, and walk on the same planet. Let’s start acting as if we appreciate it, and each other. DT
Deborah L. Martin Editor in Chief
Follow me on Instagram @debmartinnyc, @downtownmagnyc, and on downtownmagazinenyc.com
THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
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WATER,
WATER EVERYWHERE Grace A. Capobianco CEO and Founder Downtown Magazine
Follow me on Instagram @graciedtm, @downtownmagnyc, and on downtownmagazinenyc.com
FIRST, LET ME SAY TO ALL NEW YORKERS: get your shots, wear a mask, and be kind to each other. We are all human beings, let’s keep each other safe. As Downtowners, we have been here before. This area is the life thread of my being, we must stay strong and stay the course and before long, our beloved neighborhood will be coming back. Take care of our local businesses and lend a hand (safely) to your neighbor! I have lived only a few steps away from the water nearly all of my life, with the exception of my childhood in Delaware. But even then, it was just a 30-minute drive to Rehoboth and Lewis, Delaware, or Ocean City, Maryland. In my early 20s I moved to South Florida and lived a stone’s throw away from the ocean—my everyday refuge. Even when I lived in Atlanta I was near the water. (It was a lake, but it still counts!) And in Chicago I lived just off Lakeshore Drive, right on Lake Superior. I woke up every morning to jog the beach, with its spectacular views of the city. Oh, those were the days when running was my life! There is something special about waking up and going to sleep near a body of water reflecting beautiful sunrises and sunsets. When I moved to New York back in 1996, I lived on the Upper East Side and Central Park was my playground. But as much as I loved spending my days in the park, I missed being near the water. One day I just happened to take a ride downtown and discovered Lower Manhattan. From that day on I envisioned living downtown, and within a year I made it a reality. Every morning I wake up to the sunrise over the beautiful Hudson River and in the evenings, I walk along the esplanade with Barclay, enjoying the glorious sunsets. Last fall, my dear neighbor told me that they were on their way to whale watch, and I was taken aback. Whales in New York? We jumped on the subway and headed to Brooklyn where we discovered the American Princess, a 120-year-old family boat charter business. What a joy it was to chat with the captain and his crew. I could tell how kind the Captain was after five minutes, but when he said, “I will not give up until I find a whale for my guests,” we realized how devoted he was to his guests. On the cruise, we saw more than one whale, we learned about what they feed on, their lifestyle, and why they were coming back to the New York waterways. The American Princess crew was extremely cautious,
Photography by Philippe Reynaud Makeup by Dawn Nicole Hair Color by David Cotteblanche Hair Styling by Nordia Mcintosh Fashion Styling by Rachel Gritalis Wirkus Jewelry by Barbara Novak Diamonds
always putting these majestic creatures first. It was such an eye opener for me. I knew of the serious issues facing our planet, but now I had a mission, to not only learn but help to educate others. We quickly decided to focus on our waterways and the creatures who inhabit them in our Reformers issue. Coincidentally, I happened to run into Catherine McVay Hughes, our long time board member, when I returned from my whale watching excursion. Catherine has spent her career fighting for our downtown environment. She loved the idea of focusing on our native sea life and quickly penned an informative feature in this issue. There is much to celebrate: it’s the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act; the Waterfront Alliance has a five-mile ride on the East Coast Greenway on May 2; Living Breakwaters, an ecological and social resiliency project, has the Billion Oysters Project; and Water Day, a free, family-oriented celebration of the New York and New Jersey waterfront, sponsored by the Waterfront Alliance. With warmer weather approaching, it’s time for my favorite pastimes: biking and sailing on the Hudson with Classic Harbor Line and Manhattan by Sail, two companies who truly care about our waterways and love to show them off. And, of course, swimming every day at Asphalt Green BPC. Leave it to our editor in chief, Deb Martin, to come up with the perfect person for the cover. Actor Sam Waterston is the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Oceana. Gosh, it was wonderful photographing Sam in Bridgeport with our lead photographer Andrew Matusik and his assistant Cynthia Cortes. Getting to know Sam and learning more about his mission with Oceana was eye opening. I have to give a shout out to our new friends at Fayerweather Yacht Club, the lovely private club in Bridgeport where we photographed Sam. A huge thank you to Commodore Bob Schley, and to Mrs. Schely, for allowing us to use the club as a backdrop. Your hospitality was more than we could have hoped for, and the lunch from the new head chef was delicious—I’m coming back and bringing friends! PS: Two weeks after our whale watching excursion, I spotted a whale right here in New York Harbor right outside of my window. Did he know that we were dedicating this issue to his him, or even better did he remember me? DT THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
11
FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, New York City has been shaped the water that surrounds it. Its native people, the Lenape, used the waterways for fishing and travel. At the beginning of the 17th Century, European explorers, sailing up and down the eastern coast looking for a route to Asia, discovered the naturally sheltered harbor where the Hudson River flows into New York Bay and then into the Atlantic Ocean. In 1624, the Dutch West India Company established a trading post on Nutten Island, now known as Governors Island. A few years later, 300 people moved across the river to the much larger island of Manhattan and called their settlement New Amsterdam. Over the next 400 years, much of New York City was built on the three islands at the mouth of the Hudson River: Manhattan Island, Staten Island and Long Island. Because land is so scarce, it is one of the most densely populated cities in the country. It is also one of the most energy efficient, and least dependent on cars. With its deep waters and sheltered bays, New York Harbor quickly became one of the most active and important shipping ports in the country. Centuries of shipping activity, industrial development and urbanization shaped the city’s land and water into the city we know today. When the World Trade Center was built in the 1960s, over a million cubic yards of soil and rock were excavated from the construction site and used to expand the city’s shoreline across West Street, creating Battery Park City: 92 acres of residential and office buildings and parks. The September 11th attacks destroyed the World Trade Center, several surrounding buildings, and much of the neighborhood’s economy. The area has bounced back considerably since then, becoming one of the most successful 24/7 live-work neighborhoods in the country. Downtown Manhattan has also become one of the most sustainable neighborhoods in the United States. It is home to some of the most energy efficient office and apartment buildings. The majority of its residents either walk to work or take public transportation. In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy’s record-high storm surge from New York Harbor exposed the city’s vulnerability to major climate events and prompted a discussion about how to protect the city’s shoreline in the future. In this issue, long-time Downtown resident and former Community Board One Chair, Catherine McVay Hughes, talks about some of the challenges and opportunities ahead. The Covid pandemic has also impacted Lower Manhattan in massive ways. For over a year, the neighborhood’s office buildings were open, but mostly empty. Hundreds of small businesses, restaurants and bars were forced to close. Thousands of residents left the community, along with millions of tourists. Although we are vulnerable, we are also resilient. If our experience rebuilding after 9/11 has shown us anything, it is that we will come back, better and stronger than before. There are risks, for sure, but the fundamentals are strong: This part of New York City has the densest concentration of mass transit lines in the country. The fastest growing “creative class” neighborhoods in New York are a commuter ferry ride away. The waterways are busy, with ferries sailing as far as the Rockaways and Highlands, New Jersey. In a post-COVID city, the waterways are our neighborhood’s biggest threat, and also our greatest opportunity. Let’s take care of them, and they will take care of us. DT
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DOWNTOWNNYC THE REFORMERS 2021
DARA MCQUILLAN Chief Marketing & Communications Officer Silverstein Properties, Inc. Painting: Element No. 1, by Ran Ortner
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOE WOOLHEAD
ADVISORY BOARD
ADVISORY BOARD
SAUL SCHERL
Saul Scherl is President of the New York Tri-State Region at The Howard Hughes Corporation. Mr. Scherl has more than twenty years of experience in the realms of retail, residential, hospitality, and mixed-use real estate.
LUIGI ROSABIANCA
Longtime downtown resident and founding board member, Rosabianca lends his expertise on a wide array of subjects including real estate, political affairs, and architectural history, and is a frequent editorial contributor.
DREW NIEPORENT
A renowned restaurateur, “The Mayor of Wall Street” opened his first downtown restaurant in the ’80s. Nieporent’s Myriad Restaurant Group includes the TriBeCa Grill and Nobu.
DR. AMY LEWIS
Dr. Lewis is a nationally renowned medical expert in cosmetic dermatology. A Yale School of Medicine grad, she has been featured in national media as a dermatology expert, and has built a premier private practice specializing in cosmetic and laser dermatology.
ANDREW MATUSIK
Matusik loves collaborating with talented stylists, models, and artists and is devoted to creating striking images through great composition and beautiful light. For this issue, he photographed Sam Waterston for the cover and feature on page 44.
MATT KAPP
An award-winning documentary filmmaker and writer, Kapp’s book, A Century Downtown: A Visual History of Lower Manhattan, came out in 2019. Matt interviewed Silverstein Properties’ COO Dino Fusco, on page 14.
MICHAEL FIEDLER
Fiedler created the Working Journal Project using photography and handwriting to tell the stories of the people he encounters. He photographed Chef Rafele Ronca on page 24, and as always, has the issue’s Last Word, with Bob Lewis on page 88.
CATHERINE MCVAY HUGHES
RORY MCCREESH
SAMANTHA COX Samantha Cox is Vice President, Creative, New York, at Broadcast Music, Inc. She also provides advice and supports myriad projects at the Center for Performing Arts at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell.
LAURA FORESE
FRANK CELENZA
JEFF SIMMONS
Member of CB1 for 19 years, eight of those years its Chair, and for 13 years the Chair of CB1 World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee. Hughes has worked with agencies at the city, state, and federal levels.
Dual-certified in Orthodontics and Periodontics, Celenza teaches post-graduate studies at institutions such as New York University and Rutgers. He has offices in New York City, Scarsdale, and New Jersey.
Rory McCreesh founded Duce Construction Corporation, specializing in designing and constructing high-end homes and apartments in Manhattan, Westchester, Connecticut and New Jersey.
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of NewYork-Presbyterian, as well as an orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Forese oversees a leading system in quality, safety, efficiency, and service.
Executive Vice President of Anat Gerstein, Simmons has spent three decades in private and public sector communications, previously serving at the Alliance for Downtown New York.
CONTRIBUTORS PATRICIA MARKERT
ISAAC NAMDAR
NOEL Y. CALINGASAN
ARTIE RASLICH
Calingasan was born and raised in the Philippines. He is a research scientist and a photography hobbyist. His photo of Flushing Meadows Corona Park in bloom appears on page 22.
Raslich documents Humpback whales in the waters off Long Island and New York City. He is the official photographer for Gotham Whale and the photo curator of Gotham Whale’s New York City Humpback Whale catalog. Raslich’s photographs appear on page 66.
NICOLE HADDAD
CYNTHIA K. CORTES
Markert has worked as an editor, educator, poet, and citizen scientist. She can be found swimming at pools citywide. For this issue, she wrote about her love of swimming on page 85.
Haddad is a Brooklyn-based writer who covers interior design, culture, architecture, and lifestyle. For this issue, she intervied Frederic Fekkai on page 78, and Dr. Amy Lewis on page 80.
Namdar is an ENT doctor who comes from a long line of photographers. He has spent summers in Fire Island Pines for 18 years. He documents the beauty of Fire Island with his phone, camera, or drone. His work appears on page 52.
Cortes was born and raised in New York City to a mom who emigrated from Ecuador and a dad from Puerto Rico. She studied dance at Alvin Ailey, then discovered photography at the International Center of Photography. For this issue she photographed SOS Chefs on page 16. THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
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HUMANS | POWER PLAYER
NEW NEIGHBORS Dino Fusco is the new Chief Operating Officer for Silverstein Properties. by Matt Kapp photography by Joe Woolhead
DINO FUSCO in front of a mural by artist Bienbenido Guerra.
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“IT WAS A REAL VILLAGE-LIKE WAY OF GROWING UP,” Dino Fusco says of his upbringing in Hartford, Connecticut, where he and his parents, who immigrated from Italy in 1962 along with a dozen siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins, shared a three-family house in the South End. “One mother got us ready to go to school, one mother looked after us when we came home, and a third mother fed us dinner and put us to bed.” A strong work ethic permeated the extended household. His mother and aunts all worked different shifts, and his father and uncles all worked two jobs. His father worked in a factory by day and was a tailor by night. When Fusco later attended Yale, he went home every weekend but one— when he was waylaid by Hurricane Gloria—to work in his dad’s tailor shop to help pay his tuition. When Fusco interviewed for the job of Chief Operating Officer at Silverstein Properties — just weeks before New York’s governor ordered all non-essential businesses shuttered — the company’s patriarch-chairman Larry Silverstein asked him how old he was. “I said, I’m 53. And he said, ‘Oh my god, you’re so young,’” recalls Fusco. “I remember thinking, ‘I’m the oldest person I know at Goldman Sachs, and Larry thinks I’m young.’” Silverstein then asked him what his father did for a living. Fusco told him he was a tailor and still working at age 80. “That’s what you should plan to do if you come here,” replied Silverstein, who at 89 still works almost every day. Fusco says he’s come to appreciate that forgoing retirement can return vital benefits
beyond money. “I would also like to work into my nineties, because it keeps you very fit and intellectually sharp and gives you a passion not only for your work, but for your colleagues and your family.” As the pandemic raged, Fusco and his colleagues hammered out a comprehensive plan for how to best keep their employees and tenants safe when they eventually returned to the office. There were the obvious measures: Plexiglass shields, Purell dispensers, antiviral tape on touchpoints. But there were also more complex considerations, such as how to ensure sufficient air exchange in the elevators. “We calculated how many people could travel in an elevator cab based on the air exchange every minute to ensure that we minimize the likelihood for someone to contract COVID,” he explains. They’ve also deployed specialized apps and software to mitigate risk. The workplacemanagement system “Return to Office,” developed by tech startup Dojo, helps maximize social distancing and monitors air quality within buildings, among other functions. And Silverstein’s own INSPIRE app provides tenants with hospitality and concierge services, including contactless food delivery and a range of “wellness programing,” from yoga classes to cooking demos to game nights. A downtown resident for the past three decades, Fusco is grateful that he’s been able to walk to the office during the pandemic. “I’m completely unproductive at home,” he admits. “Too many distractions.” He cites a recent survey that revealed only 18 percent of people who are technically able
POWER PLAYER | HUMANS
HEIGHT:
900 feet
TOTAL SQUARE FOOTAGE:
1.56 million
to work exclusively from home would choose to continue to do so. “At the end of the day, companies still need an office, individuals need to come in three, four, or five days a week.” Though he foresees a “softness in the next year or two,” he says he is now “much more sanguine that the market will recover than I was at the beginning of the pandemic.” Fortunately, employee distancing protocols won’t play a central role in Silverstein’s latest project, the recently approved 5 World Trade Center, which will fundamentally alter the demographics of the campus. “I think what’s most unique about 5 World Trade Center is that it will deliver over 1,300 residential units on a site that used to be completely commercial,” Fusco notes. Twenty-five percent of the units will be reserved for households earning less than 50 percent of the neighborhood’s median income, the highest percentage of any building in Lower Manhattan. And as with all of the company’s properties, environmental sustainability will be at the core of the building’s design. So, what does Silverstein’s busy COO do in his downtime? “I have two teenage daughters, and teenage daughters generally roll their eyes as it relates to anything that their parents do, but I would say they do appreciate my tailoring skills,” he says. Both daughters are very involved in theater and depend upon their dad not only for alterations but for the occasional original costume too. “My daughter was once a piece of salmon sushi, so I made that costume from scratch,” he laughs. Sounds like a perfect retirement hobby. DT
RESIDENTIAL SQUARE FOOTAGE:
1.2 million
OFFICE SQUARE FOOTAGE:
190,000 PUBLIC AMENITY SPACE:
55,000 square feet
COMMUNITY SPACE:
12,000 square feet
RETAIL SPACE:
7,000 square feet
TOTAL RESIDENTIAL UNITS:
1,325 AFFORDABLE UNITS:
330 25% or
THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
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HUMANS | CULINARY
GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS On Avenue B, SOS Chefs is expanding New York’s spice cabinet, one aromatic jar at a time. by Noemi Florea photography by Cynthia K. Cortes
TUCKED AWAY ON AVENUE B, SOS CHEFS, founded by Atef Boulaabi and her husband Adam Berkowitz in 1996, is a secret garden filled with hard-to-find spices, seasonings, and pantry staples. Boulaabi first conceived of the shop as a way of uniting her experience as a specialty supplier for New York restaurants with her love of sharing food with others. “Where I come from, everything happens in the kitchen,” Boulaabi explains, describing her Tunisian heritage. “It’s something that makes everybody unite, it’s the one thing that we all have in common.” Though she originally designed the shop as a hub for restaurant supplies, today the founders are
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focused on “getting chef-inspired ingredients into the hands of cooks and private chefs in their homes,” explains Berkowitz. With the 21st-century boom in home cooking shows, reality TV, and social media, specialty cooking in the home kitchen is more popular than ever. “The home cook became much more knowledgeable,” Berkowitz says, as they discovered that many of SOS’s customers were seeking specialty ingredients listed in cookbooks by famous chefs, that couldn’t be found in the local grocery store. For the customer who wants to give the gift of culinary delights, the shop also includes assortments for all types, including for artists, lovers, and new mothers, as well as holiday themed packages for New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day, with palettes designed to complement the giftee’s personality. “Molecular Must-Haves,” is geared towards the food scientist, while “A Set for Artists” offers spices and powders that double as pigments, like pomegranate powder and butterfly pea flower powder. At the same time, Boulaabi and Berkowitz consider it their mission to promote positive cultural exchange with internationally-sourced products, decor, and conversation. “We’re here all day long telling stories about farmers in Iran or other parts of the world. People enjoy the experience here because they learn a lot,”
Berkowitz affirmed. SOS even offers bundles inspired by select locations around the world, including Beirut, La Goulette, and Persia, as a way of giving customers a culinary passport in the age of staying put. Facing the challenges of running a small business in today’s world means adaptability and resilience are key. In light of new demands posed by the pandemic, “everything has to be reconfigured, reimagined. I think it’s great,” Boulaabi asserts optimistically. As she thinks about what they have been through, and where they go from here, Boulaabi believes that as a business-owner, “it’s going to be about you enjoying your time, but at the same time you’ll always be innovating and thinking.” With Lower Manhattan’s real estate market in a constant state of flux, storefront rents have dropped while social media marketing has grown business exposure and brought in new customers. At SOS, a loyal cadre of chefs regularly tags the store on Instagram (@ soschefs) as the source of their ingredients, and in the past year a new collaboration with famed chef Daniel Bowien, founder of Mission Chinese Food, has developed. As Boulaabi reflects on both the opportunities and drawbacks of 2020, she says, “There is hope. I see it from this perspective. We have the opportunity to dream again.” DT
HUMANS | INNOVATOR
SKIN IN THE GAME A biologist creates a clean skincare line near an unlikely— and notorious—NYC spot. by Noemi Florea
NEW YORK HAS ALWAYS SERVED as a breeding ground for innovation, spurred on by the challenges its imaginative residents face daily. So it’s not surprising that Alison Cutlan and Grace Fooden, a dream-team duo with experience in science, art, beauty, and business, would choose the City as the launching ground for Biophile, a skincare line merging sensitive, sustainable formulations with high standards in skin treatment and compatibility. Yet it’s Cutlan’s inspiration— the highly-polluted, much-maligned Gowanus Canal, a superfund site near the company’s lab — that makes their ethos special. As Cutlan describes, Gowanus, Brooklyn is “inspiring because it’s a reminder of the negative impact that industry has on our environment, on our communities. It’s all linked— these things have a cost, and you can see it.” Biophile first launched in late 2019, following three years of product development on top of Cutlan’s twenty years of experience in the skincare industry. As her “vision for a new type of skincare,” Biophile is grounded in natural, clean, “science-forward” formulas stemming from research conducted on the human microbiome and its effects on skin barriers. The scientific understanding that emerged from such research represents “a huge paradigm shift in skincare and health in general,” Cutlan states, emphasizing the need “to create in synergy with our own nature, our own biology, in a cleaner way.” By synthesizing product formulations with a highly nuanced understanding of skin-level systems, Biophile’s mission is to “create a new generation of skincare using biology,” and in a way that stands to benefit humans and the environment. Using a two-step process of fermentation and bioactivity, all Biophile products are produced sustainably, in ways that use little to no energy
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throughout production. Furthermore, creating skincare out of microbial fermentation is proven to enhance skin compatibility, penetration, and safety while incorporating enough micronutrients, vitamins, and enzymes to make their skincare products a “superfood for the skin,” as Cutlan calls it. “Fermentation can transform ingredients to speak the skin’s language,” she says, adding, “our fermentation broths have a nourishing and positive balancing effect on the microbiome, one that affects the health of the skin.” The Biophile line is also certified microbiome-friendly, with organic ingredients that are sourced responsibly. “We’ve really worked hard at creating a sustainable system even within the bottle,” Cutlan states. The Biophile team is proud to be deeply connected to the community where they are based. As a biologist who spends a lot of time in a neighborhood with a deep history of environmental injustice, Cutlan believes her capacity for positive impact will play a strong role in rejuvenating Gowanus Canal and restoring the locality to its livable strength. In fact, she sees microbes playing a fundamental role in pollution cleanup, with their powerful ability to convert hydrocarbon into more benign matter. Describing microbes as “an invisible force of nature that has been there from the beginning of time,” she connects their role to the Gowanus by calling them “the recyclers in nature: they turn things over, and they also remediate.” Moving forward, Biophile plans to invest heavily in their resident neighborhood and collaborate with local partners, while throughout the pandemic the company prioritized donating monthly to organizations like One Tree Planted and Girls in STEM. To support their work and learn more about the Biophile skincare line, visit biophileskin.com. DT
HUMANS | ENTREPRENEURS
MEMORIES FOR SALE Chelsea Flea reinvents itself, and in the process, invests in New York’s future. by Dan Metz photography by Sam Hollenshead/Chelsea Flea
ERIC DEMBY KNOWS OLD NEW YORK. He grew up in the City and still lives here. It was perhaps for that reason that he and his partner Jonathan Butler were excited to acquire the lease for Chelsea Flea, an age-old open-air social hub and collectibles market that has suffered for the last few years under a cloud of what Demby calls “bad vibes.” Though the pandemic has slowed progress somewhat, he has faith that the city and the market will flourish again. In the face of nationwide financial burdens and setbacks, Chelsea Flea lets New Yorkers breathe life into their city, creating the future they want to see. The original Chelsea Flea Market opened in 1976, and at its peak, the open-air flea market
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sprawled across as many as five empty lots. It was the ultimate exercise in democracy—the fancy and the famous shopped alongside everyday New Yorkers. Andy Warhol was a regular, drawing inspiration from the tchotchkes and antiques he found there. Forty years later, in 2019, founders and thenowners Alan and Helene Boss were struggling. They could no longer cover the lease in a neighborhood now filled with towering high rises. In the winter of 2019, Chelsea Flea had what everyone thought would be its last day—it looked like the much-diminished market would disappear forever. But behind the scenes, Demby and Butler—the masterminds behind the multi-site Brooklyn Flea, and Smorgasburg, Williamsburg’s open-air weekend food market—took over the lease, hoping to breathe some life into the business. Over the winter they spent their days reaching out to current and former vendors, some of whom felt they had been burned by former management. The Chelsea Flea was all set to open the first weekend in April 2020. The arrival of COVID-19 smashed those plans, causing an indefinite delay for reopening, as well as putting a pause on their other projects. Demby and Butler persevered, opening where
they could, while they could. They re-opened a version of Smorgasburg called “Smorg to Go” from July through October, and opened the DUMBO Brooklyn Flea on Saturdays from September through Christmas. The Chelsea Flea officially re-opened on weekends in September and is gaining momentum. “Everyone’s more spread out, but the nature of the venue kind of lends itself to crowd control.” In a touch-deprived population, Demby feels the newly reopened Chelsea Flea has benefitted from its “unplugged” aesthetic. “You learn a lot and you’re surprised (when) you’re not being directed by any kind of algorithm other than your eye and aesthetics.” Chelsea Flea is also a lifeline for business owners who have suffered during the Pause. While restaurants were closing across the city, Demby and Butler worked with Rethink, a food insecurity organization, to raise funds to pay vendors to make food for community-based organizations in their neighborhood. Many vendors also lost their brick-and-mortar stores after being closed down for so long, and Demby hopes that a stall at Chelsea Flea will be a strong first step towards getting their businesses up and running again. He believes the market and its vendors are a path forward for New York City. The vendors are local small business owners and members of the same community as their customers, making it a great place for New Yorkers to support local growth. “I’ve said this before,” adds Demby, “Smorgasburg and the flea markets are participatory capitalism. You’re voting with your dollars for the kind of city and the kinds of small businesses you want to see.” DT
VIEWFINDER
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HANAMI TIME New York’s cherry blossoms have a direct lineage to the ancient Sakura trees of Japan. by Deborah L. Martin photography Noel Y. Calingasan IN CHINA AND JAPAN, spring is heralded by cherry blossom season — an important, and spiritually meaningful time. The fleeting petals are a symbol of life, death and rebirth, and are celebrated with outdoor festivals and picnics under the cotton candy-colored trees. In Japan, the centuries-old tradition of Hanami (cherry blossom-viewing) brings families and friends together to enjoy the beauty of the blossoms, known as sakura. Here in New York, we have an abundance of blossoming cherry trees, and many of them trace their lineage back to Japan. In 1909, the Committee of Japanese Residents of New York gifted the city with 2,500 trees. The ship that they were transported in got lost at sea, and only 700 trees made it here alive. Those trees now reside in Sakura Park on Riverside Drive in Morningside Heights, and in Central Park. In Flushing Meadows Corona Park over 120 trees frame the view of the Unisphere. These trees, a gift of the Japanese American Association to the City of New York, were grown from seeds brought from Japan and nursed in Van Cortlandt Park. They were planted in Queens in 2001, and each year the JAA adds a new tree. This spring, we at Downtown hope that our fellow New Yorkers will stop for a moment under the cherry blossoms and consider all of the things the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community has contributed to life here in the city we love, and to the United States at large. AAPI people are our family and friends, and we are grateful for their continued contributions. They enrich our lives, and New York would not be the same without them. DT
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CULTURE | SAVOIR FARE
FISH STORY Cooking fish at home is easy with the freshest product. by Fernanda Mueller
THERE IS NO BETTER WAY TO BUY FRESH SEAFOOD than straight from the source. New York’s iconic Fulton Fish Market has been supplying the catch of the day for over 200 years, and some purveyors are making their fresh seafood more accessible for people all over the country—from chefs and restaurants to home cooks. “I was just a kid when I met my first love, seafood,” says Citarella owner, Joe Gurrera. Passionate about seafood for more than 40 years, Joe worked at his father’s neighborhood seafood shop in Greenwich Village until he started making his own way at the original Fulton Fish Market, under the Brooklyn Bridge. His passion led him to buy Citarella in 1983, then a small seafood shop on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He eventually expanded the business to include seven gourmet markets around New York. Joe also owns a seafood wholesale company called Lockwood & Winant, which is led by his son Anthony and occupies the most square footage at the New Fulton Fish Market, in Hunts Point.
“I realized that establishing relationships with the best fishermen around the globe was the key to gaining access to the best product. From trusted crabbers from up and down the eastern seaboard, to principled farmers in British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Norway who are raising the gold standard for organic salmon, as well as sustainably farmed Branzino from Greece, organic shrimp from Madagascar, delicate cockles from New Zealand, and prized lobsters from Nova Scotia,” says Gurrera. The key to the company’s success is the freshness of their product. Lockwood & Winant delivers to seafood shops and restaurants in refrigerated trucks, while Citarella ships fresh seafood nationwide. According to Joe, this is possible because they keep their fish on an “iceberg’s worth of ice.” Seafood is the most perishable protein, so to maintain freshness, it is wrapped in waxed paper, sealed in plastic, and carefully packaged with ice packs in insulated, leak-proof boxes. “When customers order our fresh seafood online, what they receive always reflects the unrivaled standard of our markets.
CATCH OF THE DAY Joe Gurrera and son Anthony at the Fulton Fish Market (left). photography courtesy Citarella
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SAVOIR FARE | CULTURE
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CULTURE | SAVOIR FARE
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With fresh products delivered to your door, the site also provides helpful cooking tips and star chef recipes to get inspired. “We’ve seen huge growth in customers ordering from us and cooking seafood at home, making our recipes, and coming back to try new products,” says Julia Blanter, Director of Digital Marketing for FultonFishMarket.com. “Seafood was often only enjoyed in restaurants prior to COVID-19, but now people are realizing how easy and delicious it is to cook these delicacies regularly at home.”
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL FIEDLER (CHEF).
It’s hand-prepared, never frozen, and shipped overnight,” Gurrera adds.. The father and son duo are grateful to the Fulton Fish Market for the success of their business. That’s where they learned how to source the highest quality seafood. Founded in 1822 — well before the Brooklyn Bridge was even built — the market has been legendary ever since, with over a million pounds of fresh seafood arriving every morning. Made up of individual wholesalers who offer the widest selection of fresh seafood sourced worldwide, it remains the second largest fish market in the world, after Tokyo. “There are so many things that are special about the Fulton Fish Market: the history, the work-ethic, the camaraderie among people who have been doing this for generations. But most importantly for us is that it gives us access to the freshest, most pristine seafood from all over the world,” says Anthony Gurrera. Even though there’s nothing like stepping into the market early in the morning, choosing products that catch your eye and chatting with the vendors, FultonFishMarket.com is also connecting shoppers around the country with the incredible variety of fresh fish that comes into the market. The site affords a multitude of options, showcasing the week’s freshest picks from each vendor, and also offers value bundles for those looking to stock up on one particular variety of fish. Best-sellers include the salmon stock-up bundle, ahi tuna, wild Gulf shrimp, and scallops.
SAVOIR FARE | CULTURE
CHEF’S KISS Chef Rafele Ronca puts the finishing touches on the swordfish.
OCEAN TO MARKET TO PLATE Chef Raffaele Ronca is the owner of Rafele Rye, an authentic Neapolitan restaurant in Westchester County. He explains that fresh seafood is the key to delivering a great meal. “I cook what I would want to eat every day. So, I want to serve the best possible dishes that I can, and Citarella makes that easier for me to do.” Ronca emphasizes that the key to a delicious seafood
plate is that the “freshness lets you taste the ocean. That quality makes it easier and more enjoyable to prepare and enjoy.” Chef Raffaele cooked three dishes for Downtown, with fresh seafood he buys at Citarella daily. These simple recipes can easily be made at home, or at Rafele Rye, where they will be featured on the Spring menu. DT THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
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CULTURE | SAVOIR FARE
TUNA TARTARE Sushi-grade tuna cut into small cubes and marinated in blood orange pulp, Sicilian olive oil, and avocado vinaigrette.
SWORD FISH Serves 6 to 8 people 1 ��� 1 ��� ��� 1 1 1 1
pound of fresh Tuna steak blood orange cut in segments tsp. blood orange zest c. olive oil c. freshly squeezed lime juice tbs. Calabrian chili peppers tbs. sea salt tsp. freshly ground black pepper ripe avocado
Cut the tuna into 1/4-inch cubes, place in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl combine Olive Oil, blood orange segments and zest, lime juice, Calabrian chili peppers, salt, and pepper. Pour ingredients over the tuna and mix well. Cut the avocado into small cubes and mix gently into the tuna. Place mixture in the refrigerator for at least one hour for all the flavors to blend together.
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Pan-seared center-cut swordfish, breadcrumbs, basil, eggplant, and cherry tomatoes.
SAVOIR FARE | CULTURE
FRITTO MISTO Squid, octopus, cod, and zucchini with lemon and sage, lightly battered and fried. Serves 6 to 8 people 1 10 ��� 1��� 2 1 ��� ��� 1 15
lb. calamari, sliced in rings Shrimp, tails on lb. cod, cubed cups all-purpose flour tsp. sea salt tsp. ground black pepper medium zucchini, cut in spears medium sized bulb of fennel, shaved lemon, sliced in thin rings sage leaves
In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt and pepper. In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, pour enough oil to fill the pan about 1/2 of the way. Heat over medium heat until the oil reaches 375 degrees. Dredge all the ingredients in the flour mixture and place into the frying pan. Fry the dredged ingredients for 5 to 6 minutes until golden brown, then scoop out with a spider spatula. Season immediately with salt and pepper and freshly squeezed lemon.
Ingredients 4 Swordfish steaks, 6 ounces each 1 c. bread crumbs 2 cloves minced garlic ��� cup Basil olive oil for sautéing (enough to fill a frying pan to ��� inch) 1 c. cherry tomatoes 1 small eggplant, cubed 1 tsp. chili pepper ��� c. fresh lemon juice ��� c. white wine 2 tsp. oregano 2 tsp. capers 1 tbs. salt, or to taste ��� tbs. pepper, or to taste Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in frying pan, add garlic, cherry tomatoes, eggplant cubes, chopped basil, oregano and chili pepper. Sauté until golden brown, remove from heat, then set aside. Dredge swordfish in breadcrumbs, sear steaks in pan for 2 minutes on each side. Add lemon and white wine into the same pan. Add the eggplant and tomato mixture and pour over the swordfish steaks then place pan in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
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CULTURE | CHEF TABLE
THE GREY AREA A lesson in how food unites us, from Chef Mashama Bailey and Johno Morisano of The Grey, in Savannah.
FOOD IS CULTURE Awardwinning chef Masham Bailey and business partner Johno Morisano serve up a new take on Southern food in a former Greyhound station in Savannah.
ANCHORED IN DOWNTOWN SAVANNAH, The Grey is a renowned restaurant serving culinary specialties steeped in regional flavors, locally-sourced ingredients, and classic dishes from the American South. With founding chef Mashama Bailey and cofounding business partner Johno Morisano at the helm, The Grey has been noted as a Food & Wine “Restaurant of The Year,” a TIME Magazine’s “The World’s Greatest Places” and a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation’s “Best New Restaurant” award. Built in an historic, Jim Crow-era Greyhound bus terminal operating under segregation from 1938 to 1964, today The Grey symbolizes a new collective vision for the American Dream. This past year, Bailey and Morisano collaborated on Black, White, and The Grey, which tells their story as business partners and the greater influences which stemmed
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from uniting cultural and racial differences. As Bailey writes in her prologue, “Little did I know that our partnership would test this theory. It would test the basic differences in American culture and how we coexist.” As an added bonus, each chapter is concluded with recipes of the “food we like to eat and, more importantly, food we have shared with each other, our friends, and loved ones.” In early 2021, Bailey, who was born in New York, returned to the City as a resident chef at Intersect by Lexus, a restaurant, lounge, and event space on 14th Street. Offering a selection of The Grey’s signature collard greens, pickles and homemade bread paired with handcrafted cocktails such as the Father John Manhattan, Bailey’s selections will be available through mid-April at Intersect, where guests can make a reservation at intersect-nyc.com. DT
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY TEN SPEED PRESS; BLACK, WHITE, AND THE GREY BY MASHAMA BAILEY AND JOHNO MORISANO, PUBISHED 2020.
by Noemi Florea
CULTURE | IMBIBE
CIN CIN! It’s 5 O’Clock somewhere
STUYVESANT MIMOSA BLOSSOM PUNCH By Marvina Robinson, B. Stuyvesant Champagne
DREAMING OF SPRING By Sommelier Jamie McFadden, Sandy Ridge Vineyards and Mercantile
B. Stuyvesant Grand Reserve Champagne 1 oz Lorina Sparkling Blood Orange Soda ��� oz Grey Goose Vodka 1 oz Fresh squeezed orange juice, pulp free 1 Sliced strawberry 1 Slice of navel orange 1 Fresh mint leaf plus extra for garnish Crushed Ice
2 oz 1 oz 1 oz 2 oz 4-6 2-3
Add crushed ice to a wine glass. Combine vodka, blood orange soda, orange juice, orange slice and strawberry to glass and stir. Add fresh mint leaves and top with B. Stuyvesant Grand Reserve Champagne. Garnish with a mint leaf sprig.
OUT OF THE ASHES 2 1 ��� ���
Parts Hudson Whiskey Back Room Deal Egg White Part fresh lemon juice, divided Parts honey and ginger syrup
1. Add all the ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake for 30 seconds. 2. Strain into a chilled coupe. 3. Garnish with a lemon peel.
TIKI TODDY By Alexander Hauck and Stephan Berg of The Bitter Truth 1 oz
Tiki Lovers White or Dark Rum 1 oz The Bitter Truth Golden Falernum 3 dashes The Bitter Truth Aromatic Bitters ��� oz Lime Juice 2 oz Orange Juice Heat all ingredients in a pot (don‘t boil) and pour into a warmed glass or mug. Garnish with cinnamon and orange.
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Tussock Jumper Sake Coconut liqueur Mango nectar Lychee juice Ice cubes Lychee for garnish Fresh mint for garnish
In a cocktail shaker combine Sake, coconut liqueur, mango nectar, lychee juice and ice. Shake ingredients for 10-15 seconds. Pour into a cocktail glass to 3/4 full. Gently place in lychees, and top with fresh mint to garnish. Serve immediately.
PINK TIGER 1��� Parts Ojo de Tigre ��� Part fresh lime juice 4 Parts pink grapefruit soda Add all ingredients over ice in a highball glass and stir to mix. Garnish with a slice of lime.
CULTURE | URBANITY
SEE YOUR CITY
Spring is here and New York is blooming. by Dan Metz
DANIEL COONEY FINE ART presents Wyldlands by Doug Meyer, an exhibit that explores a future world of 2036. Meyer imagines that we are two decades into a series of pandemics that keep Americans in quarantine and eight states have seceded to form the West America Federation. By 2036, future Americans begin to come out of quarantine and explore the social world left behind in March 2020. Meyer spent the last year constructing fantastical recreational playgrounds he calls “bunkers” and creates portholes to look inside on the humans expressing themselves physically and socially. He was inspired by his own social isolation, seeing no one except his husband and going nowhere except his home and studio, a short walk from each other in Chelsea. As the lockdown grew longer the narrative expanded and shifted in Meyer’s head. He thought about what society would be like when it reopened, and designed the bunkers so viewers could look in on those interactions. The bunkers got bigger and the story in his head got more refined. “It became this whole kind of voyeuristic thing because if people can get together with someone who’s tested negative, it becomes safe,” says Meyer, “I think the idea of sex, like everything else, is different than what it was a year ago. So that’s where this whole voyeuristic exhibitionist thing came into play in my head.” danielcooneyfineart.com 34
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DESTINATION HAUS is a new concept at The Rockaway, a vibrant, community-driven, full-service hotel located in the heart of Rockaway Beach. The 84,000 square foot hotel features 60 guest rooms, a restaurant, a rooftop bar, an outdoor pool area, and a large-scale event space. The Destination Haus Bungalow is curated with beach-chic decor and furnishings by Destination Haus, fusing the beach and urban city life experience that the hotel is known for. The one-bedroom bungalow is a bookable, elevated private dining space perfectly suitable for special celebrations from intimate weddings and birthdays to bridal and baby showers. The bungalow also acts as a design showroom in which guests can shop every item on display and will be open through the end of April. therockawayhotel.com
URBANITY | CULTURE
TROUTBECK is just a short two-hour drive from Manhattan in Amenia, NY, and is a perfect getaway in any season. The 250-acre estate hotel has lots of ways to relax, including a world class spa (shown above) and a full complement of natural programs. Take over an 18th-century cottage, complete with four-bedrooms, a dining room, a living room, and a kitchenette. In the restaurant you can taste the locally sourced culinary stylings of Chef Gabe McMackin. If you’d rather stay active than lounge, Troutbeck offers unique classes, workshops, and experiences, including a falconry program offered on-site. Meet the birds, learn the basics, then put on a glove and work with professionally trained birds. troutbeck.com
WHIPPED URBAN DESSERT LAB brings ice cream into the future with their plant-based, dairy-free, vegan, oat milk soft-serve. Five delicious flavors are on the menu: Strawberry Shortcake, Mint Chocolate Cookie, Cinnamon Apple Crisp, Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie and Classic Chocolate. They also have a premium hard-scooped ice crème collection. Whipped is owned by sisters Courtney Blagrove and Zan BR, and is part of UrbanLuxe, a black- and female-owned lifestyle brand. Blagrove holds a PhD in nutrition and metabolism, so perfecting the texture and flavor of vegan, allergy-friendly ice crème was all done in-house. 95 Orchard Street, urbandessertlab.com
THE LAWN CLUB is an indoor recreation area designed to replicate a classic outdoor experience. Located in the Fulton Market Building, it will be opening this spring. Created by The Howard Hughes Corporation, The Lawn Club will feature individual turf courts available for guests to rent. Half of the 20,000-square foot space will be covered in premium synthetic grass that emulates a perfect outdoor lawn, while the remainder will feature expansive seating for leisure viewing and enjoyment. Each court will come with a rotating selection of lawn games for guests to play, including cornhole, bocce, croquet, mölkky, and more. During the summer months, The Lawn Club will expand outdoors with sidewalk courts. Tailored for guests of all ages, the site offers New Yorkers and visitors a safe way to socialize in a lively, family-friendly atmosphere. thelawnclubnyc.com THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY wants us all to laugh again with their new exhibit, So Ready for Laughter: Bob Hope and World War II. Coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the USO, the show celebrates Hope and his famous USO tours. A companion exhibition recalls the comedian’s wide-ranging influence as a live entertainer, movie and television star, and Oscars host, with materials from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and other sources. The exhibition features approximately 50 artifacts, including rare and unpublished photographs of Hope; a World War II-era aircraft fragment; videos of his traveling wartime troupe; and Hollywood Victory Caravan programs and scrapbooks. nyhistory.org THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
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SHELTER | ART FURNITURE
KYOTO TABLE Poltrona Frau revisits the iconic Kyoto table designed by Gianfranco Frattini in 1974. The elegance of Japanese design blends with the rich and tactile qualities of solid wood. The table is crafted with precision dovetail joints, making the craft part of the decorative appeal. poltronafrau.com
RONDEL PENDANT LIGHT A simple, yet elegant glass rondel hovers beneath an LED light and copper hardware. This pendant light is also available as a flush mount light, or sconce. tracygloverstudio.com
ART AND CRAFT Eschew the production line and choose a one-of-a-kind piece to tie your room together. by Deborah L. Martin
CLUB CHAIR Taylor Forrest designs and produces his furniture in New York. The Club Chair is crafted with vegetable-tanned saddle leather. The sling is fixed to a solid metal frame with an oversized saddle-stitch. Hammered brass rivets on the armrests add contrast while keeping the leather in place. taylorforrest.com
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HYALINE I RUG Bec Brittain’s Taxonomy collaboration with Edward Fields continues with designs based on the structures and functions of the natural world. Hyaline I mimcs the patterns of insect wings writ large. Brittain continues to re-contextualize the science of taxonomy, not as a limiting or separating force, but as a means of revelation. edwardfields.com
ART FURNITURE | SHELTER JEFFERSON LAMP Lodes introduces a crystal suspension lamp designed by Venetian designer Luca Nichetto in honor of the brand’s 70th anniversary. Jefferson uses a reinterpretation of the vortex pattern of Bohemian glass, which casts a swirling play of light. jblightingcollection.com
EASY PEASY adds quirky portable style to any room. The rechargeable table lamps from Lodes have a metal base that houses an LED light, and a methacrylate diffuser wrapped by a glass bell. A solid knob functions as a dimmer, and also allows users to control the intensity and warmth of the light. jblightingcollection.com
TOSS CUSHIONS from Marimor Objects are ultra-soft and feature contrasting colors and textures, adding a punch of personality and playfulness. Toss is available in five color combinations and two shapes, lending itself to a range of aesthetics and color schemes. marrimor.com
FACTORY FLOOR photography by Antoine Bootz
RALPH PUCCI INTERNATIONAL introduced a new concept in their Chelsea flagship location, last year. The (factory) collection includes work by Patrick Naggar, Paul Mathieu, Vladimir Kagan, John Koga, and Olivier Gagnere, as well as new exhibits. Many of the works are produced entirely in Pucci’s 18th Street workshop, using techniques and materials born out of the company’s history and experience producing mannequins. Currently, the floor also houses the large-scale, sculptural wood designs of Stefan Bishop (Orka side table, above) and light sculptures created by Ana Meier and Hervé Descottes for Richard Meier Light (below). Bishop creates organic forms inspired by the iconic redwoods of his home in Oregon. He works in wood, bronze, and steel, and his pieces beg you to touch them and appreciate the tactile textures that evoke tree bark smoothed and shaped by the elements. In a limited-edition collection that explores light, color, shape, and shadow, the light sculptures of Meier and Descottes are inspired by the architectural shape of a construction I-beam. ralphpucci.com
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BUSINESS PLAN
GROWING GREEN The Castlefield Group is helping companies boost their positive environmental impact. by Daniel Metz photography courtesy of Golf Kitchen
THE STUDIES ARE IN. We are at a critical decision point: Embrace a green future or leave our great-grandchildren a planet that looks more like a desert. Yet worldwide, environmental progress is slowed by a fear of economic repercussions—how will a green future affect the bottom line? The Castlefield Group envisions a future full of businesses thriving in the green economy. Members Nick Barrow and Bradley Kirkland founded their company in 2020 as an advisory firm helping companies with an emphasis on environmental sustainability and innovation maximize their impact through inorganic strategies, increasing their market share through mergers and acquisitions. They provide support and guidance for fledgling companies based on decades of combined experience, because they can see the writing on the wall: “Our great grandchildren will either look at us as the generation who set the world back on a sustainable path, or as the generation who blew our last best chance to do so,” says Barrow. “We have to be the people who make the right choice and business has to be at the forefront of driving environmental impact reduction.” As longtime friends and experts in business management, Barrow and Kirkland noticed a gap in the market, and they stepped in. Barrow is a Mergers & Acquisitions professional with experience in the US and UK as a corporate officer, business owner, and entrepreneur. Kirkland has also been a business owner for nearly twenty years and has served as an active Angel Investor for a decade. He’s been a mentor and a speaker for businesses in over half a dozen countries across the globe. “We acknowledged within ourselves our ambition to try and make a positive impact on the world,” says Barrow. “We felt that the best way we could do that was to help companies who wanted to make a difference and compound our own impact through their impact.” Barrow and Kirkland chose inorganic growth strategies because they are focused on small companies with promising visions. Billion-dollar companies may have ready access to resources for enacting change, but many green visionaries don’t. They may not have run a business before,
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or find themselves punching far above their weight. “We have to believe in the founder and the team,” says Barrow, “We have to trust them, and they have to be people who we would enjoy working with, but in our experience, the real value is having a unique mindset that brings about change.” That’s where Castlefield Group comes in. “We work with business owners to develop a profile of what an ideal acquisition target would look like, find those companies, contact and qualify them, and do the heavy lifting to get a deal done for our client,” says Kirkland. “We ran businesses, and we know that most business owners would like the opportunity to grow their company by making acquisitions, but the truth is that most of them don’t know where to start.” Their client list includes a company developing an organic fertilizer solution to rapidly replace synthetic nitrogen, with the potential to reverse the damaging effects of over-farming and reduce carbon output from fertilizer production by over 90 percent. Another client is revolutionizing freshwater microbiome extraction by developing a method to dramatically increase both the volume and variety of available microorganisms—a vital process for the continued development of medications and cures for global health advancement. If you’re looking for advice and assistance, you’re not alone. “We have found that inorganic growth strategy is a message that resonates with business owners,” says Kirkland. “Most of our clients come from referrals.” Yet they remain strict in their mission. “We focus on clients whose founding principles mean that their businesses inherently align their environmental and economic objectives. We are quite selective about who we work with—we know what our clients look like and we tend to stick quite closely to our ideal client profile.” For Barrow, Castlefield’s work is of utmost importance. “As we look at ways to impact the world that our children and future grandchildren will grow up in, there are few things that are more addressable yet critical than environmental direction. The innovation and momentum are ripe, interest is broad, and the timing is dire.” castlefieldgroup.com DT
LITTLE APPLE | BARCLAY'S SPOT
BARCLAY’S THOUGHTS
BARCLAY HUDSON PAWBLISHER Follow me on Instagram @downtownbarclay
HI FURRIENDS AND WELCOME TO SPRING! With the vaccine rolling out for real, it looks like our humans can finally hit play after a year of Paws in NYC. We have been patient. We’ve sat and we’ve stayed. But soon, it will be time to run, jump, and explore. I have interviewed a lot of pups, many of whom haven’t known a world outside of their New York apartments, or were maybe too young to remember what outside was like. Even veteran New Yorkers like myself might not recognize the city we left behind a year ago. On the short walks I take with my mom, I see a change on every Downtown street. Some of the rush has left NYC, leaving room for new growth and opportunity. And change can be really good. I got a chance to speak to some great city pups looking toward the future and their hopes for a newly opened New York City. Bee, a three-and-a-half-month-old Beagle, loves eating Greek food with Pawpa
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Franck Raharinosy, Co-Founder of SPIN and Sound Practitioner. Murphy is a four-month-old mini English cream Dachshund who loves to keep in shape with the Zoomies, running circles around pawrents Katie Boren, a dancer with the American Ballet Theatre and creator of Katie Boren Fitness, and Dee McGaw, director of finance at Cecelia Health. Remi Fallon, a toy poodle, can’t wait to move back to The City with their mama Ashley Tucker, Assistant Fashion Editor at O, The Oprah Magazine. Jax, a four-and-a-half-month-old stay-at-home pup, is looking forward to the reopening of events on the Hudson for himself and his pawrents Drew McWhorter, Senior Product Manager for mobile game Two Dots, and Erin Cross, Product Marketing Director for Healthline Media. Dakota, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, has been taking time off to enjoy Fire Island with his pawrents Joel Robare, Scott Martin, and Nick Appice.
BARCLAY'S SPOT | LITTLE APPLE
BEE
DAKOTA
JAX
“I really love that Greek restaurant near my house, Elani’s. They have an amazing baby lamb shank, and I always get a juicy bone if I’m a good girl.”
“There’s a squirrel named Buster that I’m trying to get along with this year. We’re not friends yet, but we’re also not not friends yet. It’s a work in paw-gress.”
“Ice cubes are the perfect dine-in experience. When I’m on the go, I take some time to grab a bite of snow as a treat.”
MURPHY
REMI
“I spend a lot of time on FaceTime, especially with my uncle Harley (@woof_harley) who lives with my grandparents in Texas.”
“I can’t wait to set sail at sunset with Barclay and Grace! It is the must-do event of the season! Mommy will have to pick out fabulous cruise wear for me, with sunnies to match!”
IF YOU’D LIKE TO MAKE A GIFT, EVERY DOLLAR HELPS! Visit animalhaven.org/#action, click the Donate button in our bio, or find us on Venmo @AnimalHaven
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SAM WATERSTON, photographed at the Fayerweather Yacht Club on the Long Island Sound in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
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Sam Waterston is taking a stand in support of the world’s oceans. by Mike Hammer photography by Andrew Matusik
AS A CHILD, SAM WATERSTON FELL IN LOVE with the New England coastline where he was reared. “I was a child in the days just after World War II,” he recalls. “Because of the war, fishing had been cut back significantly, and the oceans were plentiful. Growing up in Rhode Island, seafood was plentiful, full of variety, and inexpensive. Everyone believed the sea was inexhaustible, until suddenly it wasn’t — and I knew I had to do something about it.” The 80-year-old Law & Order icon has now resolved to use his enormous equity as one of America’s most respected actors to help restore the world’s waterways to the pristine and plentiful status he remembers from his youth. He dove into the business of researching how much damage had been done — and even more importantly — what he could do to help stem the tide, and he was deeply shaken by what he discovered. On the advice of good friend and fellow actor, Ted Danson, Sam looked into Oceana, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring the world’s oceans and waterways, that also boasted a long resume of environmental victories. Recent triumphs have included helping to secure the banning of industrial activity in protected Canadian waters, ramping up digital monitoring of previously unregulated salmon fishing in Chile, and creating the world’s secondlargest marine national park off Spain’s Mediterranean coast. “I saw that Oceana is an organization that gets things done and I wanted to be a part of that,” Waterston says. “Because of public pressure organized by Oceana, the Obama administration closed the North Atlantic for oil drilling for the next decade. Because of Oceana’s efforts, people up and down the coast lobbied for this destructive activity to end,
and they swayed the governors of states on the Atlantic coast to join in.” He continues, “That gave me all the motivation I needed to get on board.” Sam joined Oceana’s Board of Directors in 2008 and within two years was testifying before Congress about the urgency of reversing ocean acidification. According to Oceana’s statistics, the world’s oceans absorb about 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every day. “It’s changing the chemistry of seawater and killing sea life,” Waterston says with palpable sadness in his voice. “To reverse ocean acidification, the United States must reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and transition to clean, renewable forms of energy before it’s too late.” He warns that in order to save species in the ocean — and secure our own survival — we all need to change the way we live dramatically. Recognizing his commitment, Oceana elected Waterston Chairman of the Board last year, providing him with more opportunities to turn passion into action. “I feel so fortunate to have been placed in this position,” he says. “It’s a tremendous place with incredibly committed people and a history of important victories I would be proud to add to.” One victory he’d love to add to Oceana’s record is replenishing the once-plentiful codfish population off the shores of New England and Canada. “I’ve seen first-hand the damage fisheries have done without serious regulation,” he says with passion. “Codfish drew Europeans to the Northeast Atlantic going all the way back to when the Vikings first got to Greenland.” Waterston’s family history includes some relatives that came from England on the Mayflower, so the history of the Northeast Atlantic runs in his veins. He says, “Alexandre Dumas wrote in the 19th century that if every cod egg reached maturity, you could walk across the Atlantic on their backs.”
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“Everyone believed the sea was inexhaustible, until suddenly it wasn’t — and I knew I had to do something about it.”
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“If people make whales extinct, we’ll have exposed something awful about ourselves.” To further the cause, he wrote an impassioned op-ed piece to try and compel the Canadian government to fall in line with American fishing restrictions to help save the species. In it he wrote, “In 2019, we stood — literally and figuratively — with the federal government to celebrate the new [Fisheries] Act, which for the first time included obligations to rebuild depleted fisheries and manage them sustainably.” Unfortunately, it seems the celebration was premature. He explains, “Rather
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than requiring clear, measurable actions to rebuild depleted populations to healthy levels, they went out of their way to avoid setting any enforceable standards.” “Since the U.S. introduced a strong law in 1996 to stop overfishing and require rebuilding, 47 stocks have been rebuilt, generating about 54 percent more revenue than when they were overfished. The new Fisheries Act promised a brighter future for Canada’s fisheries. It’s time now to deliver on that promise.”
Waterston’s focus is also riveted on the redemption of the imperiled North Atlantic right whales—he calls them the “Leviathans of the Bible”—which are rapidly disappearing from the planet. Oceana estimates there may be just 360 individuals left. “Whales haven’t been diminished; they are what they were, magnificent creatures, but our capacity for wonder has been shrinking,” he warns. “And, if people make whales extinct, we’ll have exposed something awful about ourselves.”
OCEANA AT A GLANCE
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A FISHERWOMAN IN CHILE gleans shellfish in the shore break near her town. Oceana campaigns for sciencebased policies that restore the abundance of our oceans and ensure that artisanal fishers can continue to provide for their families. © OCEANA / Claudio Almarza
2001
Oceana is founded. It is currently the largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation.
Victories that protect and restore the world’s oceans through science-based policies.
4 Million
3 to 5
Square miles of ocean protected.
He points to collisions with ships and entanglements with fishing gear as key factors in the depletion of the species, with new threats emerging every year: key among them the deadly non-biodegradable plastics that are dumped into the oceans by the ton, that whales often consume or get caught in with deadly results. But Waterston believes there is hope. “We have to produce less plastic, because once it’s made, it’s here for good,” he says. “The equivalent of a garbage truck full of plastic goes into the
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Countries or regions that control one third of the world’s wild fish catch: Belize, Brazil, Canada, Chile, European Union, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, United Kingdom, United States. Oceana has launched successful campaigns in each of these regions or countries.
Oceana’s campaigns are specific, targeted, and designed to achieve measurable outcomes in a three- to five-year timeframe.
6.8 Million Members, activists, and social media followers who support Oceana internationally.
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North Atlantic Right Whales Photograph © Oceana
ocean every minute. It’s an issue Oceana is rightly addressing with real urgency.” He points out that Oceana is pressuring companies to take action to reduce plastic production and offer alternatives. It is also pushing for new legislation that will reduce the use of the deadly material in coastal countries worldwide, where a staggering 35 percent of plastic waste is generated each year. “Our oceans sustain life that could feed a billion people a healthy seafood meal every day, forever. But the oceans are being killed by throwaway plastics,” Waterston says. “We should not be forced to pollute the ocean every time we eat, drink, or go to the store. We need a choice —a plastic-free choice.” Luckily Waterston and Oceana are not alone in their battle to bring back our waterways. In New York, the food chain has rebounded because of more stringent fishing regulations, the establishment of oyster farms in New York Harbor, and the resulting cleaner water that has welcomed the returning whales.
A significant factor was legislation to protect against over-fishing of Menhaden, a small feeder-fish, which is a key source of food for the returning whales. “It’s incredibly encouraging and a key proof of concept,” Waterston says. “This is the kind of thing that we’ve been fighting for at Oceana. It shows that the right actions produce results that prove our oceans can be fully restored if the proper actions are taken.” And while Waterston remains highly focused on these noble efforts to save our oceans, he hasn’t given up on his storied acting career, which includes star turns on screens big and small, as well as the stage. The 80-year-old actor has played presidents (Lincoln, twice!); Shakespearian princes (Prince Hal in Henry IV and Hamlet); literary figures (Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby); and journalists (Sydney Schanberg in The Killing Fields); not to mention his longtime role as District Attorney Jack McCoy in Law & Order, the series’ second longest running actor. He is looking forward
to shooting another season of the hit Netflix comedy Grace and Frankie, with his equally accomplished castmates, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Martin Sheen, as soon as the pandemic allows. “I can’t wait to be acting again,” he says. “If it weren’t for the pandemic, I would be in a production of Measure for Measure at the Public Theatre in New York right now. Working with Fonda and company is anything but work, Waterston says, and has led the former television D.A. to one of his more unusual experiences — getting arrested on the steps of the Capitol in 2019, when the issue-oriented cast assembled to protest climate change. “It was a new one for me,” he laughs. “But getting arrested [during a peaceful protest] is a wonderful way to get the message through to yourself about how deep your own convictions are.” And like the oceans for which he is a staunch advocate, Sam Waterston’s convictions are so deep they appear to be bottomless. DT THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
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ISLAND IN THE SUN Fire Island has weathered all kinds of adversity, and is stronger than ever. by Mike Hammer
photography by Isaac Namdar
FIRE ISLAND, a 32-mile-long barrier island off the south shore of Long Island — is no stranger to both glamour and adversity. It is an island of 17 unique communities and over 4,000 homes and it is famous for, among other things, being a go-to destination for the LGBTQ community. It has also been a home and escape for writers, artists, and fashionistas alike, including W. H. Auden, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, Richard Avedon, Andre Leon Talley, Calvin Klein, and Angelo Donghia among many others.
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Though Fire Island’s history stretches all the way back to the Indigenous communities that called it home, in the 1980s it was synonymous with the beginning of AIDS crisis. The Pines and The Grove were emerging as gay communities in the 1970s, when the party came to a screeching halt. Community residents recall the seemingly endless days of losing friends, tending to the sick and dying, and planning funerals. Activist Larry Kramer began the Gay Cancer Fund in 1981 by collecting money to help people
AERIAL VIEW The Fire Island ferry brings summer visitors and residents alike to the barrier island off the coast of Long Island.
suffering from the disease in The Pines and The Grove, and a few months later he became the co-founder of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), one of the earliest organizations to focus on the disease. The crisis that longtime residents lived through served to tighten the community in a shared bond of surviving adversity. More recently, a massive fire consumed the Pavilion dance club in 2011, and dealt a devastating blow to the gay community. Pines resident Jon
Wilner said at the time, “For anyone who lives or rents here, they feel like the Pavilion was their building. It represented their lifestyle, and it was the place where they could celebrate it.” In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on the island, severely depleting its beaches and destroying more than 200 homes. Summer visitors craving the glistening shoreline and party atmosphere stayed away. A massive rebuild was needed and for some, it was too much THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
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“Many people are looking at this as a place to put down roots. It’s no longer simply a party destination.”—Joel Robare
to endure. “There was so much damage from Sandy — both to the homes and to the beaches,” says Joel Robare, a longtime Fire Island resident. He believes that a new kind of Fire Island rose from rubble. “Oddly, all of these tragedies have served to bring new life and permanence to what was once exclusively a summer getaway.” Robare continues, “I started coming here about 10 years ago and I’ve noticed an incredible evolution. Many people are looking at this as a place to put down roots. It’s no longer simply a party destination.” After Sandy, those committed to a future on the island remained, and those who left were replaced by a more diverse population which set about rebuilding. Architect and longtime resident Scott Bromley says, “Many of the new people saw a greater potential for year-round homes, and those who were rebuilding saw the opportunity to winterize their homes. Suddenly, people were seeing Fire Island as a place to put down real roots.” After the Army Corps of Engineers completed a massive 281 million dollar beach replenishment project, the Island seemed reborn with a new spirit. “Fire Island was always a slice of paradise just a little more than an hour from Manhattan,” says Henry Robin, the recently-minted president of the Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association (FIPPOA). “Now it offers what just might be the most beautiful beach in the world, and the draw has never been stronger.” Just weeks after the beach project was completed last year, the island
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was slammed by another natural disaster — the COVID-19 pandemic. But Robin says that tragedy has lifted the community to remarkable new heights. The Property Owners’ Association estimated that about 200 of the approximately 500 homes in The Pines were occupied during the winter months. “The recovery efforts from Sandy brought the many communities of the island together to restore the natural beauty that makes this place so unique. And now the pandemic has made people more aware that it’s a place they can enjoy year round.” “It’s as safe here as it is anywhere,” says Diane Romano, president of the Cherry Grove Community Association, adding that “the people in Cherry Grove have been really great at implementing social distancing.” The common theme among the island’s devoted residents is that tragedy has never brought them to their knees. Romano says, “The tragedies brought us all closer together. This is a cohesive community with people who really care about each other.” Through all of its challenges, Fire Island continues to evolve. Walter Boss, a builder and resident of The Pines says, “Let me sum it up in four simple words: rich history, bright future. The Pines has been built through dedication and with respect for its heritage. You can’t move forward successfully unless you respect where you have been. The Pines is extraordinary, there is no other place in the world like it. As a building, it’s my goal to preserve and enhance the natural habitat.” DT
PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY FIRE ISLAND HISTORICAL PRESERVATION SOCIETY
NEW LIFE In 1956, the Coast Guard station was sold to the Fire Island Pines Property Owner’s Association, which then sold shares to the community. The Community House was rebuilt and included a stage and a medical care center. In 1994, the architectural firm of Bromley Caldari Architects won a contest to redesign the building, and in 2007 the new, modern structure was completed and named Whyte Hall after famous resident, John Whyte.
A PLACE TO GATHER The Community House began life in 1854 as a lifesaving station, and in 1900 it was taken over by the Coast Guard and called Lone Hill Station. During World War II it served as a base to patrol the beachfront.
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TAKE THE A FRAME On Fire Island, a 1960s beach shack gets a new, high-style life. by Deborah L. Martin photography by Mikiko Kikuyama
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Views of the bay are framed at each elevation of this modern A-frame.
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IN A TOP-TO-BOTTOM RENOVATION of a bay-side A-frame home on Fire Island, Bromley Caldari turned a seasoned beach rental into a sleek, modern hide-out. Rethinking the iconic 1960s A-frame form, architects R. Scott Bromley and Jerry Caldari broke through the envelope of the building to weave a sculptural staircase through the airy three story structure. Working with local builder Walter Boss, the team made preserving the surrounding natural habitat and pristine views a priority. The home had a spiral staircase that split the center of the home; four cramped, dark bedrooms; a leaky roof; and a cracked pile foundation. It was not the beautifully designed vacation home that is so often associated with Fire Island Pines. However, the architects, builder, and clients saw the potential, and the poolside sunsets over the Great South Bay were spectacular. Blocking that great view and occupying the heart of the house was the old, six-foot-diameter steel spiral staircase. The clients were willing to sacrifice a bedroom or two to remove that remnant. With the lot coverage at its limit, Bromley and Caldari took advantage of a local law that permits bay windows to project a maximum of two feet from the building envelope. The new stair would tuck into two large bay windows staggered at different elevations on each side of the house, with a cat-walk balcony off the master bedroom to connect the two sides. Views of the bay are framed at each elevation. On the main level a double height living and dining room stretches the length of the window-clad North façade. The open kitchen and house utilities run along the south side. The master bedroom suite has full height glass sliding doors to take advantage of the view. When privacy is required, the sliding glass doors fog up at the flick of a switch. Under the peak on the third level is a quiet second bedroom and den, which doubles as a third bedroom when needed. The two rooms are connected by a walkthrough bathroom with a glass shower enclosure on one side and a glass-enclosed powder room on the other. Pocket doors at each end allow for privacy. DT THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
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GREEN GROWTH New York City’s green trajectory includes community gardens and protected greenspaces throughout the five boroughs. Earthjustice works to protect these important spaces, especially in underserved communities.
AND JUSTICE FOR ALL Sustainability is the watchword for these four New York organizations. by Noemi Florea
SUSTAINABILITY IS a hot topic today, yet few people really understand its nuances. In 1987, the United Nations Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as a “triple bottom line” of social, economic, and ecological equality, and today it has become an all-encompassing concept addressing the racial, socioeconomic, industrial, urban, and ecological disparities that exist globally. The four organizations featured here — Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, Earthjustice, New Economy Project, and New York Communities
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for Change — are emphasizing climate justice in its multifaceted reality across New York. They are expanding the social, economic, legal, and charitable boundaries of our city in an effort to kickstart a paradigmatic shift into a more egalitarian future. They’re thinking about the economic parameters of capitalism and serving those who have been left behind. They are questioning the industrial pollution and challenging our policymakers to see what lies ahead, and they advocate on behalf of communities across New York lying in the
wake of environmental destruction to attempt to rewrite the history of discriminatory urban planning that now makes communities of color most vulnerable to climate change. Fostering these ideas is not an easy task, but the leaders of these organizations are anchored by a strong set of principles and a vision for a future we can all thrive in. Legions of volunteers, who show up every day to support the causes they believe in, are the backbone of these and other organizations worldwide.
toxic, and pesticide production. Investing in issues at localand state-levels enables attorneys to focus on the specific circumstances of every issue, while also enabling regional influence to take place at a larger scale. “What happens in New York will also transfer to New Jersey. I’ve seen a lot of efforts spread that way,” Gutierrez confirmed. “So, we’re really going to get to see that systemic change in a flash.” In the 50 years since Earthjustice was founded — originally as a team of attorneys supporting the Sierra Club, “there’s been a lot of awakening, reckoning, and understanding,” Gutierrez reflected. Today, the fight has been picked up by young people, whose investment in the safety of their own futures has led to what Gutierrez called “greener pastures for the environmental movement.” As she describes, “the youth are taking over, they’re saying ‘We’re not standing for this anymore. We’ve got to figure out how to help and make this change.’” To join in advocacy alongside these movements, Earthjustice offers an Action Alerts center on their website, where members can sign on petitions to the city council and EPA, as well as send prewritten letters to officials at the state and local levels. Local coalitions can also connect to Earthjustice for free legal services on environmental litigation. “We’ll never bill our people for legal services,” stated Gutierrez. Through united communities across political, demographic, and economic thresholds, there’s hope to meet the climate challenge and establish a stronger future for ourselves and younger generations, together. earthjustice.org
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEENAH MOON
EARTHJUSTICE (ENVIRONMENTAL LAW) What a season it’s been for environmental law. A new Presidential administration has resulted in a sky-high pile of executive orders reworking ecological law from the ground up. At Earthjustice, a national coalition of environmental lawyers headquartered in Manhattan, the newfound legislative emphasis on climate protection is both welcome and unprecedented. Nydia Gutierrez, the Communications Strategist of Earthjustice’s Northeast Operations, believes now is the “perfect time” to see our country undertake a pathway to sustainable systemic change. Among the President’s executive orders that address ongoing work by Earthjustice in New York are a national ban on chlorophyll pesticide, and Biden’s guidance to “temporarily halt” fossil fuel investments. “We’re hoping that ‘pause’ turns to ‘stop entirely,’” Gutierrez states, as preventing further power plant development would protect the residents of many underresourced communities where refineries are often built in close proximity, including near the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. To advocate for citizens in Gowanus, Earthjustice is “working with coalitions in the city to help with these microscopic steps that happen along the way,” ultimately seeking to build a path to renewable energy aligned with the President’s trajectory. Though Earthjustice is structured nationally to address environmental issues occurring from coast to coast, the organization is based in New York City to support the many local coalitions and movements working against chemical,
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BOOTS ON THE GROUND Volunteers from Rescuing Leftover Food travel the city looking for excess food that can be turned into meals for hungry people.
RESCUING LEFTOVER CUISINE (FOOD INSECURITY) Among the disparities exacerbated by COVID-19, food insecurity tops the list. With many Americans out of work, putting food on the table can become a challenge compounded by structural inequity. In light of these pervasive struggles, many organizations have stepped forward to ensure everyone has their basic needs fulfilled, including Rescuing Leftover Cuisine (RLC), a nonprofit that addresses systemic food waste by partnering with local restaurants and grocery stores to redistribute excess inventory to New York’s homeless population. Originally a student organization at New York University which redistributed dining hall food to homeless shelters, RLC was formally established in 2013 around the idea that “there was so much food going to waste, while at the same time there were people who were food insecure,” CEO and founder Robert Lee says. Today, the partnerships at RLC are “all about the fact that this is a common-sense solution, and every single food business should be donating their excess food.” In the past three years, the nonprofit’s presence has
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expanded its network, both within New York City and nationally. The organization can also be found in cities like Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Dallas, and Portland. “We’re excited about continuing to spread the word and get more people donating,” Lee says. In 2020, the organization rescued over 1.8 million pounds of food in New York City alone; they’re projecting to save even more in 2021, and to reach three to five million pounds of food rescued annually within the next few years. To connect with local restaurant and grocery partners, RLC generally works by “cold outreach” — contacting businesses by phone, email, and door-to-door campaigning. Though success this way was hard to come by early on, a growing reputation and the spreading awareness of food waste, insecurity, and environmental impact has made their program progressively more compelling. Today, many businesses “know about the ins-and-outs of donating food, and the conversation is much easier,” as Lee puts it. With new partners, their team also cooperates with businesses to determine donation logistics so as to prevent a
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY RESCUING LEFTOVER FOOD.
burden on the commercial operations. To bring excess commercial food to the local homeless population, RLC relies steadfastly on volunteers and community members to transport the food by foot, bike, or car to nearby public spaces hosting food drives. As Lee says, engaging people while volunteering is the most impactful stage of work at RLC, because the volunteers can “see the impact, see how much food is about to go to waste, and then just take that to a place that’s just 15, 20 minutes away and see the line of people who desperately need that food.” This past May, RLC partnered with Pratt Institute to distribute leftover food during the ongoing pandemic and, as Lee recalls, the line of recipients “was wrapping around avenues and running around long blocks of Brooklyn.” As long as scenes like this continue, RLC remains committed to continuing food waste interventions. Readers can help by donating, or signing up to volunteer for a distribution shift. Supporting local partners, including popular takeaway spot, Pret A Manger, and 3Guys produce market in Brooklyn, is also important. To get involved, visit rescuingleftovercuisine.org
NEW YORK COMMUNITIES FOR CHANGE (RACIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE) In the span of a single year, the global movement for racial justice has peaked in ways never seen before: the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, served as a catalyst to march for an end to systemic racism in policing and beyond, and the weeks of rallying that followed served as a testament to racial solidarity. Marching alongside dedicated activists were members of New York Communities for Change (NYCC), a New York nonprofit for racial and economic justice founded in 2009. “Fundamentally, New York Communities for Change is about working to fight racial and economic injustice at its core,” says Patrick Houston, the organization’s Climate & Inequality Campaigns Associate. Today, NYCC’s work centers on five core campaigns: housing affordability, labor, immigration, education, and criminal justice. In addressing the distinct overlap between climate and racial justice, Houston confirms that “the issue of climate has diversified racially in a significant way.” Though environmental injustice has historically impacted low-income communities of color disproportionately because of discriminatory zoning laws and the proximate development of refineries, power plants, and other pollutive sources, racial and climate justice were not always perceived to be closely aligned until recently. Houston has since noticed that members “are now engaged in the environmental justice and climate change campaigns in a deeper and more consistent way.” In partnership with broader ecological coalitions, there has also been “a more consistent and beautiful overlap of conventional white environmental organizations working in unison with racial and economic justice organizations” like NYCC. In conjunction with the climate crisis, recent
campaigning has revolved around affordable housing and protecting excluded workers, the importance of which has been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic. As Houston points out, there are “so many people struggling right now, literally deciding between putting food on the table or paying to keep the lights on,” and “people are still going to be struggling beyond the pandemic.” Specific pushes to cancel rent on housing and increase taxes on New York’s wealthiest all fall under the umbrella of NYCC’s core motivations to support racial and economic equality throughout the city. Houston emphasizes how each campaign, despite its varying nuances, serves to “draw the connections of how our macro-pushes for things like taxing the wealthy are fundamentally tied to black liberation, for communities of color to have the resources and support they need to live safely and thrive.” Built on a staff of twenty, a member-run board of directors, and hundreds of active members in their neighborhood-based chapters, NYCC isn’t stopping short on any account. In the past year, they’ve organized and campaigned against the fracked gas Williams pipeline in the Far Rockaways, as well as advocated to pass what is now Local Law 97 in New York, which Houston describes as a “massive, massive bill to cut pollution from New York City’s large buildings.” Through these campaigns, incorporating support and opportunity for black and Latinx communities is a top priority, and Houston underscores that “we can’t solve the climate crisis on the backs of those least responsible.” To support their work, visit the NYCC website at nycommunities. org for a calendar of events, as well as mgnd. org to learn more about the statewide climate campaignMovement for a Green New Deal. To find out more about NYCC’s housing justice campaign, visit housingjusticeforall.org.
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PUBLIC ADVOCATES Fighting for climate justice, financial justice, worker justice, and housing justice is the bread and butter of the New Economy Project.
NEW ECONOMY PROJECT (ECONOMIC JUSTICE) The importance of economic justice and its close interconnections with social and environmental concerns has never been clearer. With millions of people unemployed and many now homeless or on the verge of becoming so, the need for robust social governance has been augmented in the wake of extreme financial disparity. Among the ranks of New York nonprofits and social organizations working to serve local communities, New Economy Project (NEP) has been bridging the gap with a keen angle on supporting meaningful
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systemic change. As founder and co-director Sarah Ludwig states, the work being done at NEP is “radical in nature and in vision, but very practical, grounded and achievable.” Originally founded in 1995 as the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, the organization’s mission was and still is “to work with community organizations and New Yorkers to challenge discriminatory economic practices and systems that perpetuate inequality, poverty, and segregation.” In their 26 years, NEP has consistently put emphasis on “[getting] banks to the table” and keeping city and state officials
accountable in their services to low-income residents. In the past seven years, they’ve particularly focused on supporting local coalitions to build systemically innovative and democratically-owned institutions including a public bank, community land trusts, financial cooperatives, and community-based renewable energy systems. When it comes to ensuring that their ongoing work has the intended impact, co-director Deyanira Del Rio says, “There have been moments in time where we step back and say, ‘Are we having the impact that we want to have?’” Within their core initiatives, the projects
PHOTOGRAPHY BY TKTKTKTKT
gaining momentum across New York include piloting a public bank program and enhancing the leverage and presence of local community land trusts. Where city laws currently require that businesses lend their finances to commercial banks along with the billions of dollars of taxpayer finances handled annually, NEP’s Public Bank initiative asks, “Couldn’t that be deployed for the public good? Shouldn’t that be deployed for the public good?” In effect, the program functions as a “multilevel campaign that’s built around climate justice, financial justice, worker justice, and housing justice,” Ludwig explains, and describes how it “embodies this idea of the common good,
of the commons.” Linked to a philosophy of the commons, NEP’s core campaign for community land trusts and social housing seeks to “keep housing out of the private speculative market and [put] it in the hands of communities” so that “long-time neighborhood residents can have a say over developments in their communities,” Del Rio explains. NEP is now collaborating with city officials to embed funds for community land trusts across New York, as well as to push for legislation that would prioritize CLTs and give tenants a firstpurchase right to newly-available property. “It is a really transformative model. It’s very much linked to deeply and truly affordable housing in New
York City,” Ludwig emphasizes. As the world and city progresses in the strife to make social and economic ends meet, NEP remains committed to supporting populations traditionally disenfranchised by systemic bias. Ludwig encapsulates the organization’s vision: “We’re not trying to make things fair-er, we’re trying to make things fair. We’re not trying to make things more equitable, or less polluting, or less harmful – we’re trying to eradicate and build affirmatively.” To endorse their ongoing projects and to learn more about upcoming bills and campaign progress, join their mailing list at neweconomynyc.org. THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
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A WHALE OF A TALE The Hudson River is once again teeming with sea life. by Catherine McVay Hughes photography by Artie Raslich/Gotham Whale
THE EFFORTS OF REGULATORS, environmental groups, and New York scientists and citizens have greatly improved the conditions of the Hudson River and waters in and around New York Harbor. With these improvements, the food chain has rebounded, the water is cleaner, and supports a diverse ecology, from oysters to whales. The waters of New York are now a feeding ground for seabirds, seals, sharks, dolphins, and whales. 2020 brought into focus our immediate surroundings as we became outdoor vacationers in New York City. A highlight has been increased sightings of whales, most recently in December in New York Harbor, and throughout last summer in the shallows of the Atlantic Ocean. This has only been documented since 2011 and each year the numbers of humpback whales have increased dramatically, according to Gotham Whale. A humpback whale stole the show as it frolicked up the Hudson River by the Statue of Liberty and points north. It grabbed our hearts and gave us hope that we can build a better world together. These visits owe a lot to the resurgence of a cornerstone species called Menhaden, a feeder-fish species also known as bunker. Many different groups worked to protect these fish from overfishing, because they are also critical to the survival of the Atlantic striped bass, bluefish, tarpon, and other sport and commercial fisheries.
THE FOOD CHAIN & OMEGA 3 Americans spend more than $1 billion a year on over-the-counter fish oil. A 2018 New England Journal of Medicine study found that Omega-3 fatty acid supplements “did not result in a lower incidence of major cardiovascular events or cancer than placebo.” A downtown resident and dad, Paul Greenberg, explains in his book, The Omega Principle: Seafood and the Quest for a Long Life and a Healthier Planet, that most Omega-3 supplements come from the little fish such as the Menhaden that big fish (and whales) eat. Consequently, when the reduction fishery targets smaller wild fish to make them into fish oil for vitamins or meal, a key portion of the food chain is significantly reduced.
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SEE LIFE As the waters in New York Harbor are restored, everything from tiny feeder fish to the giants of the sea returns.
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SEAL OF APPROVAL Harbor seals return to the shores of the Manhattan Island.
SAVE THE WHALES, PROTECT THE FOOD – ADVOCACY TO SAVE ATLANTIC MENHADEN At the New York State level, local fishermen and women, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), The Nature Conservancy, Gotham Whale, Menhaden Defenders, marine scientists, and others came together to educate others on the importance of sustainable management of a keystone species, the little known Menhaden. Many worked at the state level with elected officials to pass legislation to stop the unregulated fishing of the species. In 2019, legislation was signed into law by Governor Cuomo that prevents the use of large purse seine nets to take menhaden from New York’s waters. Built on the measures of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in 2012, this important action is critical to restoring the Menhaden population which had been overfished to just a small percentage of their fomer abundance. As a result, they have been returning to New York’s coastal waters in historic numbers, which is good news to the striped bass fisheries on Long Island. The replenished food source is bringing whales and dolphins back to New York’s coast, a boon to tourism.
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DOWNTOWN PLACES TO ENJOY AND LEARN ABOUT NY’S HARBOR Water surrounds Downtown on three sides and there has been investment in its waterfront over the past several decades. Along NYC’s west side of the Hudson River is the Hudson River Park, which has several downtown highlights including: • Pier 40 Wetlab: a native aquarium and marine biology field station that also serves as a learning laboratory for those interested in learning more about the Hudson River Estuary. • Tribeca’s Pier 26 -A 2.5-acre, ecologically-themed pier opened in September 2020 and incorporates indigenous plants as well as a short habitat walk through five native ecological zones: woodland forest, coastal grassland, maritime scrub, rocky tidal zone, and the Hudson River. At the tip of the Pier is the Tide Deck that is an engineered rocky salt marsh. -Downtown Boathouse is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization with the mission of providing safe, free public access to the water through kayaking programs. Just south, Battery Park City has an esplanade that takes you to views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. BPCA’s Marine Education programs include joining experienced anglers for catchand release fishing and learning about life in the nearby waters. The Hudson River is home to over 150 species of fish, and BPCA welcomes the public to keep a “life list” of each species of fish and birds. On the east side starting at the Brooklyn Bridge along the East River Esplanade, there is Manhattan’s only beach, called the Brooklyn Bridge Beach, where visitors can watch the tide go in and out. If you are lucky, there may be an event such as City of Water Day. There are also plans to restore that area just north of Pier 17 while keeping the waterfront accessible. At the tip of Manhattan is The Battery. Across the path from the SeaGlass Carousel will be the Playscape: a new 1.5-acre sustainable playground with elements inspired by climate, sea, and wind. Rain gardens will filter urban runoff. It is expected to open Summer 2021. In a city of islands surrounded by 520 miles of coastline, Governors Island is located at its core, just a 10-minute ferry ride away. Governors Island is a 172-acre island that serves as a hub of learning about how the harbor is changing through its existing community of tenants and partners like the Billion Oyster Project, the Harbor School, and the Climate Museum. The island is poised to play an even greater role as a research and education hub, anchoring its continued growth by attracting a center for climate solutions.
WHALE WATCHING, CITIZEN SCIENCE AND THE FOOD CHAIN
WATERFRONT ALLIANCE IN SEPTEMBER 2020, waterfront programming hit a high-water mark, with the Waterfront Alliance’s City of Water Day attracting tens of thousands of New Yorkers to Lower Manhattan and waterfronts across the city. The day’s celebratory draw was called Experience the BlueLine,” a reference to the name of the future high tide line as sea levels continue to rise around our island home. The Waterfront Alliance has been a presence in NYC for the last 15 years. Not all of its functions are as visible as City of Water Day, but spend any time in the city and you will run into their work. They have championed waterfront parks and open spaces, helped grow the NY Ferry System, and helped establish the city’s Comprehensive Waterfront Plan. They advance innovative design in waterfront development, promote waterway safety, and celebrate the rich maritime history of NYC. Waterfront Alliance President and CEO Cortney Koenig Worrall adds, “Today, we’re pushing even further to make sure we are still progressing towards the original goals of fishable, swimmable water, and to reduce the risks our region faces from climate change.” waterfrontalliance.org
If you are up for a special several-hour boat ride out of the NY Harbor into the Atlantic Ocean for close-up views of the bunker fish, Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins, or humpback whales (if you’re lucky!), then Gotham Whale, in conjunction with American Princess Cruises, is your next stop. They had a fantastic 2020 whale watching season. Gotham Whale is a not-for-profit corporation that is the only research group currently monitoring marine mammals around NYC. Under the leadership of Paul Sieswerda, it combines citizen activism with science by collecting marine research data throughout the area. Their Citizen Science project records sightings of seals, dolphins, and whales in our area, and catalogs individual photographs of whales. Gotham Whale’s observations have shown that the New York region is becoming a feeding ground. Menhaden, the prey species, have increased over past years. Whales, as a top predator, are a dramatic indicator of the health of the underlying food chain, and the health of the waters in general. Their work shows evidence of improving conditions in the waters around New York City. THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
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AMERICAN PRINCESS CRUISES Captain Tom has seen a lot in his lifetime on the water. His father started fishing and cruising in 1945 when he left the military at the end of World War II. One thing Tom never thought he’d see in New York Harbor was pods of whales. In the 80s and 90s, he would see only a handful of whales each year. Then things changed: by 2010 that number had gone up to more than 25 sightings a season. After a similar turnout in 2011, Captain Tom decided to start whale-watching. At first, only 60 percent of his outings had whale spottings. Then the next year it was 70 percent, then 80 percent the next year. In the last three years, he says he’s averaged a 90-95 percent success rate. “Being on the water my whole life,” he says, “if you’d have told me I’d see more whales here than in Cape Cod, I would’ve said ‘You’re crazy!’” americanprincesscruises.com
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The waters of New York are now a feeding ground for seabirds, seals, sharks, dolphins, and whales.
OF PODS AND SCHOOLS Pods of the ocean’s largest and most beloved animals are now frequent visitors to New York waters. Dolphins, seals, whales, Menhaden, and many other finned creatures have also made appearances.
CONCLUSION As we approach the 50-year anniversary of the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act, the humpback whale populations decimated by whaling are still listed as endangered, even after decades of protection. However, we have seen that steps taken, even at the state level, give them a better chance. The World Economic Forum says that although the economic and political consequences of COVID will be with us for years to come, they warn that the biggest global risks over the next 10 years are extreme weather, climate action failure, and human environmental damage. We welcome the whales for their beauty and intelligence, and they are also unusually good at taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, which is important in tackling climate change. New York rose to greatness on its harbor, becoming a nexus of trade, industry, and finance. We look again to the ocean and see hope confronting new challenges. DT THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
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FUTURE FASHION Six brands who are making sustainability their company ethos. by Noemi Florea
AS CONCEPTS LIKE SUSTAINABILITY environmental impact, and consumer waste become hot topics, it’s becoming easier to find brands that shout their love of the planet through premium-priced, “eco-friendly” products, and yet harder to find companies that are taking climate change to heart while integrating sustainability into the core of their ethos. When we talk about sustainability in the fashion industry, it’s not always as simple as “a little less synthetic dye here, a bit more longevity there.” The clothing and textile industry is reported to be the second-largest polluter worldwide, second only to oil. Annually, the fashion industry emits about 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and it’s estimated that about 20,000 liters of water go into making a single t-shirt and pair of
jeans. And with big-market fast fashion brands cashing in on our growing dependency on cheap, disposable clothing, the industry doesn’t seem to be looking back. The six brands profiled here — Eileen Fisher, KAIGHT, Good Cloth, Fabscrap, GRAMMAR, and Metal Rat by Javiera Estrada — are making a complete 180 when it comes to the trajectory of the global fashion market. Guided by principles including local and responsibly sourced materials and production and strong ethics for worker welfare, these brands are taking bold steps forward to incorporate sustainability into the heart of their operations. From the cotton seed to the package at the door, feel confident that you’re now supporting a new movement in fashion, one that’s defined by a global vision for restorative change.
METAL RAT BY JAVIERA ESTRADA
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once hardly-used leather purse kickstarted the METAL RAT line of unique art, as Javiera Estrada has now taken to painting every leather piece she owns. Beginning by sourcing and restoring high quality vintage leather, Estrada intensively cleans, conditions, and re-coats each leather piece by hand before relining her work with up-cycled silk fabric. She then goes about painting her work in a highly organic, fluid motion that is dictated by the piece itself and the leather behind it. Incorporating indigenous symbology, literature, poetry, bold graphics, and whimsical floral, every piece of METAL RAT is utterly one-of-a-kind. The product line packaging is made entirely of recycled materials, and Estrada strongly encourages her clients to repurpose the hand-painted box pieces are shipped in. javieraestrada.com
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GRAMMAR
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esigner Althea Simons founded Grammar in 2018 to offer an inclusive approach to design, with proportions that enhanced underlying ease and practicality for women of all forms. The line is rooted in the belief that the integrity of a design is equally defined by its ecological impact. Grammar shirts are made locally in New York City using shell buttons and 100% organic cotton that is both recyclable and biodegradable. To ensure that their cotton is of the highest quality, the company requires all production to receive Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certification to demonstrate compliance with the strictest standards of sustainability and labor rights, from seed to finished fabric. grammarnyc.com
GOOD CLOTH
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ood Cloth is a curation of sustainable fashion brands established by Stephanie Hepburn, journalist and author of Human Trafficking Around the World: Hidden in Plain Sight. Having spent over a decade researching the sustainable fashion industry, exploring how brands produce their products, and identifying the companies doing it correctly, Hepburn launched the platform to help people discover new, sustainable brands and support the designers who are passionate about creating products sustainably. Every piece at Good Cloth is designed with consideration for workers, the planet, and consumers, and is further backed by small, transparent supply chains. shopgoodcloth.com
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EILEEN FISHER
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ileen Fisher is a leading brand in socially conscious fashion development, with Fisher herself serving as a pioneer in sustainable fashion and working to empower women and girls worldwide As one of the largest women’s fashion company to be a certified B Corporation, the brand has proven a strong ethos in voluntarily meeting high criteria for social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. Find their line at over 50 Eileen Fisher retail stores and 1,000 department and specialty stores internationally, two of which are leading the RENEW program to feature gently worn and remade designs from their take-back program. eileenfisher.com
From the cotton seed to the package at the door, feel confident that you’re now supporting a new movement in fashion.
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FABSCRAP
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ABSCRAP is a New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to ending commercial textile waste. The nonprofit provides a pre-consumer textile recycling service to hundreds of companies in the apparel, interiors, and entertainment industries, and in less than five years has diverted over half a million pounds of material from landfill with the help of thousands of volunteers. Small pieces of textiles are recycled, and the resulting materials are available for sale at their warehouse, shop, and online store. fabscrap.org
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KAIGHT
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AIGHT is a multi-brand boutique showcasing independent sustainable and ethical fashion brands that minimize their environmental impact through a careful use of materials and supply chain consideration. Founded in 2006 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, KAIGHT is now located in the Hudson Valley in Beacon, NY. kaightshop.com
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EN VOGUE | HAIR
THIS PAGE, ON FREDERIC: Blue blazer, Uniqlo USA; Shirt, James Perse; Sweater, I Pezzi Dipinti; Belt, Hermès. ON SHIRIN: Vintage Leather Jacket, Versace; Shirt, Grammar NYC; Jeans, Khaite; Boots, Gianvito Rossi.
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OPPOSITE, ON FREDERIC: Suit, Arthur & Fox; Corduroys, Uniqlo USA; Loafers, Loro Piana. ON SHIRIN: Jacket, Nili Lotan; Skirt, Zara; Boots, Prada; Blouse; Julie de Libran; Necklace, Monica Vinader; Sunglasses, YSL. Hair by David Cotteblanche; Makeup by Ana Sicat.
HAIR | EN VOGUE
LA VIE BASTIDE In the South of France, an intoxicating way of life leads Frédéric Fekkai and Shirin Von Wulffen to infuse FEKKAI and Bastide with a sense of magic. by Nicole Haddad photography Antoine Verglas
IN LIFE, WE’RE OFTEN CONFRONTED with choices. But sometimes, it’s the ones we don’t love that lead us back to a road already traversed, only to find a new path that blooms at every step. Such was the journey of Provence-born Frédéric Fekkai, a beauty industry luminary, thought leader, entrepreneur, hairstylist to Hollywood sirens, and environmental advocate. While FEKKAI is a name synonymous with luxury — emanating from every facet of the global brand — luxury to the man behind it is far from what you’d expect. “One of the most luxurious things in the world to me,” he explains, “is not having a logo. It’s about wellness, a way of life, a guidance on how to live your life well. To live it elegantly, by being cautious and careful, and attentive to everything that you do.” And he has. In 1989, Fekkai opened a salon atop New York City’s pinnacle of style, Bergdorf Goodman. By 1995, he was a pioneer of innovation and creativity, launching the first hair care line to be based on skin care technology. “Very often hair care is lagging behind skin care and food,” he explains of his endeavor to elevate the product. It worked. “All of a sudden my brand was sitting next to La Mer, Estee Lauder, and Chanel.” A 10,000-squarefoot flagship salon on 5th Avenue followed: the ultimate test of success. By 2008, Fekkai sold the company yet stayed on as a consultant. “Financially, it was a great reward, but emotionally it was not,” he says. As time progressed, Fekkai became restless. “I wanted to be an entrepreneur again, I wanted to be active,” he recalled. It took a visit back to his hometown of Aix-enProvence—where he now shares a home with his wife Shirin Von Wulffen, a former fashion publicist— to realize what his return would look like. In 2015 the couple acquired Côte Bastide, a now 30-year-old heritage brand that Fekkai had previously worked with. “We fell in love with the romance of the brand. It was artisanal — the label was written by hand with a fountain pen. Everything was eco-friendly and produced by local artisans with generations of savoir faire,” says Fekkai. They shortened the name to Bastide —which means “country house” in southern France. “This idea of a bastide really drew us,” explains Von Wulffen. “It’s a home, where you hear laughter, smell cooking, and you see families enjoying themselves. It’s this idea of living a really good life. We call it la vie bastide, as in ‘the sweet life of Provence.’”
To keep to the brand’s artisanal, sustainable ethos and expand it even further, the couple reformulated everything to be as green as possible, a growing importance in their lives. For Von Wulffen, the “a-ha” moment, she says, came when they had kids. “We wanted to make sure everything we put in our home was clean, that it was good for them.” Fekkai adds, “When we were in the South of France, we realized people were so ahead of us. They were so careful with the ingredients they would select, buy, and consume. And not just for food, but for health and beauty too. I thought to myself, ‘Wow, that’s the way life should be.’ So, it really triggered and accelerated that desire to create products that would be modern, chic, and sustainable.” The couple worked with talented designer Pierre Jeand’heur to recreate their product packaging to reflect the beauty of Provence. After a beautiful but off-the-mark first attempt, they invited him and his team to experience the region for themselves, and to understand why the most incredible painters, from Picasso to Van Gogh and Cezanne, all gravitated to the light in the South of France. By the next try, the team nailed it, choosing a bright terracotta hue — the same shade of the couple’s home — as the branding color. “When you’re walking through the town of Aix, you have the same feeling that you would have when you’re opening something from Bastide,” explains Von Wulffen. Today, the brand continues to celebrate artisans, honor tradition, and offer products that exude l’art de vivre. From soaps made of the purest olive and coconut oils, to handmade candles, fragrances, and creams, Bastide’s natural essence is intoxicating. By 2018, Fekkai was restless again. “I realized that my brand FEKKAI was not relevant or modern anymore, and my name was on the bottle.” He bought it back, and by 2020 launched the firstever collection of salon-grade products made with clean, plant-derived ingredients. He worked with specific chemists to ensure each formula was vegan and completely toxin-free, avoiding all silicones, parabens, phthalates, and sulphates. Every bottle in the collection is made with 95% high-grade repurposed plastic and is 100% recyclable. “What we’ve done is an extension of our thoughts on consumption and how we want to live,” stated Fekkai. “Bastide is, I would say, a celebration of life and home, and FEKKAI is a celebration of beauty and confidence.” .DT THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
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EN VOGUE | BEAUTY
BEAUTY ELIXIR On the Upper East Side, Dr. Amy Lewis is changing lives one procedure at a time. by Nicole Haddad photography by Lana De Doncker
THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY is constantly evolving, but the desire for a magical upgrade remains the same. Whatever the process, the aspiration is for natural, glowing results with little, if any, downtime. Dr. Amy B. Lewis, a celebrated medical expert and consultant with her eponymous private practice Lewis Dermatology located on the Upper East Side, has answers. While the Yale School of Medicine graduate specializes in Cosmetic and Laser Dermatology, her true passion lies in helping people accept themselves. These days, that’s more important than ever. “With COVID and everything else that’s going on in the world, dermatology is one thing you can do to improve people’s quality of life,” she says. In what she refers to as “Zoom, gloom, and doom,” people are increasingly forced to view themselves while they interact with others, and they don’t always like what they see. Dr. Lewis offers a wide range of solutions that are highly effective in improving people’s sense of peace with themselves. “Dermatology has evolved so much. Options used to be so limited: we had only Botox, a couple of fillers, and one or two lasers. Now that there are so many tools in our toolbox, people can get a refresh without spending a lot, suffering through a lot of downtime, or having anyone be the wiser,” she says. These days non-surgical treatments run the gamut, and Dr. Lewis offers some of the most cutting-edge technology available. EMSCULPT Neo, a new device used for skin tightening and body contouring, incorporates High Intensity, Focused Electro-Magnetic (HIFEM) energy to trigger muscle contractions. It not only helps build muscle — sometimes by almost 25% — but also melts body fat through a process called lipolysis. According to Dr. Lewis, one session is equivalent to doing 20,000 sit-ups. Among the various cosmetic and medical dermatology procedures her practice is known for, CoolPeel, conducted with the advanced Deka SmartXide Tetra CO2 Laser, is very popular. The laser has more scanning patterns than earlier versions, allowing for unparalleled precision when it comes to skin resurfacing. “I have been trained in it from the beginning and in all its evolutions,” explains Dr. Lewis. “It can help increase collagen, texture, and tighten the skin, it has no downtime, and it’s painless.” She also added that it can be used for various parts of the body. While the face is important, Dr. Lewis reiterates, “I promote overall wellness. Your hands and chest have to match your face.”
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A self-proclaimed “science geek,” Dr. Lewis recommends following the data — not new fads promoted by celebrities. She frequently participates as a speaker and trainer for major injectable companies, and as a scholar when it comes to webinars on new techniques, injection workshops, and more. “You always pick up a pearl,” she says. “You learn from other people’s successes and failures.” Taking this to heart, Dr. Lewis is always open to mentoring Yale Dermatology residents. “I didn’t have people who took me under their wing to teach me the ropes, so it’s nice to be a resource.” A fellowship in Dermatological Laser and Reconstructive Surgery armed her not only with a unique understanding of the path aging takes, but also with an eye for facial artistry — an element apart from being technically good. While some patients may not like what they see in the mirror without understanding why, Dr. Lewis understands. And as for the symmetrical ideal? “You need to understand the rules of beauty to be able to break the rules. Complete symmetry is not the end-all of beauty,” she explains, noting her instinctive understanding of when not to negate what is clearly more alluring thank so-called classic beauty. But professional ingenuity aside, having founded the Yale Cosmetic Dermatology Division within the Dermatologic Surgery Department in 2005, and serving as a consultant and advisor for skincare companies like Kiehl’s, L’Oreal, and Helena Rubenstein, Dr. Lewis truly takes pride in transforming people from self-conscious individuals to happy, confident beings. One patient in particular had a pronounced asymmetrical jaw that she was able to fix with fillers, even though all of the patient’s previous consultations had proposed orthodontics and maxillofacial surgeries to fix the jaw line. “She told me I changed her life. I was on a high the whole weekend,” recalled Dr. Lewis. “It really made me feel great.” While not all changes may be so dramatic, subtle effects are just as delightfully transformative to those experiencing them, proving that bliss emanates beauty. DT
BEAUTY | EN VOGUE
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SKIN | EN VOGUE
BEE THE CHANGE PhilanthroBee champions one of the world’s most valuable— and vulnerable—creatures. by Noemi Florea
IN THE MIDST OF VAST AGRICULTURAL LANDS and well-watered suburban lawns, tiny saviors are struggling to keep their wings aloft. Bees are responsible for pollinating much of our plant life and keeping our food sources thriving, and the dual threat of toxic chemicals and a changing climate has them facing extinction in many parts of the world. Enter PhilanthroBee, a brand that is bringing together local conservation programs in San Jose, California, to support bee life near and far. Founded in 2018 with their first product line released in April 2020, PhilanthroBee was the natural culmination of founder Michelle Scheumeister’s lifelong “love, appreciation and respect for animals.” With extensive experience in owning and caring for animals, Scheumeister recalled how “falling in love with [her] neighbor’s bee hive” and using its natural output to aid with her own animals’ ailments was the initial catalyst of her present-day healing skin care line derived from all-natural bee products. By combining her own family’s bee conservation efforts with the programs offered by local organizations such as the Happy Hollow Park and Zoo in San Jose, Scheumeister and PhilanthroBee are now on the path to “let our community know that our bees are in dire need of support. We have lots of colonies that are collapsing globally, and if our bees die, we’re four years right behind them,” Scheumeister says, describing how the widespread extinction of bees may collapse our global food supply and impact our own survival. To combine bee conservation with a commercial skin care line, PhilanthroBee operates a large bee apiary in their partner Happy Hollow Zoo’s facilities, where educational initiatives including classes on conservation and bee-keeping can happen in the same space as natural product production. The skin care line is sold in PhilanthroBee’s store in the San Jose neighborhood of Willow
Glen, and profits are then redistributed to support rangers in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as “pollinator parks” in San Jose. As a small business championing sustainability throughout their supply chain, Scheumeister and her team are setting the bar for the industry to evolve to better practices. “One of our biggest things at PhilanthroBee is really pushing that plain-ingredient, plainpackaging movement,” Scheumeister described, alluding to the synthetic-free nature of their product line. PhilanthroBee packaging is made of compostable carboard, and Scheumeister stated that she’d like to see less plastic and more compostable materials across the skin care industry. “We’re pushing forward to let others know that, ‘You can do this, too.’ If a small company like us can do zero plastics and go
towards a carbon-neutral footprint, those bigger companies can do the same.” Beyond supporting eco-friendly brands like PhilanthroBee, there are simple steps we can all take in our everyday lives to support conservation efforts. As Scheumeister says, avoiding the use of pesticides and taking the time to plant pollinator-friendly plants can go a long way towards providing a hospitable environment for bees to thrive in. Scheumeister describes how customers often ask her questions about conservation, pollinator programs, and other sustainability tips, and believes “I know we’re doing something right and we’re on to something, because people are asking questions and that’s when you know you have something good.” To learn more about the PhilanthroBee skin care line and reach out with questions, visit philanthrobee.com. DT
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FITNESS | EN VOGUE
DEEP DIVE Swimming is good for the body and soul. by Patricia Markert photography by Asphalt Green
IF YOU’RE A SWIMMER with a habit of doing laps, what’s there to do with the pools closed? Could you try running? For people with arthritis, that may be too hard on the joints. Walking is good, especially along the river’s edge in Battery Park, where gardeners take care of beautifully landscaped gardens, but for diehard swimmers, it just isn’t the same. But this past October, Asphalt Green’s pool re-opened in Battery Park, offering a welcome workout that surpasses every other form of exercise. What is it about swimming? In Bonnie Tsui’s book, Why We Swim, she gives five reasons why swimming is a uniquely valuable activity. These include survival, wellbeing, community, competition, and flow. If you fall into water, you had better know how to swim, or risk drowning. In Tsui’s book, she tells the story of an Icelandic hero whose amazing feat was so dramatic, the whole of Iceland now reenacts his famous swim each year to honor him. Gulli Fridporsson survived a shipwreck that sank his fishing vessel and killed all of his fellow crew members. He alone swam to safety in 40-degree water for over three miles. It turns out his body was adapted like a seal’s, with an extra layer of fat, which prevented him from succumbing to hyperthermia. In Tsui’s book, we also learn that during a stay in London, Benjamin Franklin swam daily in the Thames. Swimming was prescribed as a water cure back in his day, and was suggested to help improve the lungs and prevent constipation. Others who relied on swimming for therapy include Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, two men who both suffered from physical ailments that were alleviated by daily workouts in the water.
Swimming is also easier as one ages, since it reduces the pain of arthritis, and “improves healthy circulation of blood around the body to the damaged parts that need it—even more than running or cycling …and without the pain.” When he was a child afflicted with ADHD, Olympian Michael Phelps said, “being in the pool slowed down my mind.” Swimming can also lower blood pressure by making the heart and lungs work harder. According to Dr. Hirofumi Tanaka, director of the Cardiovascular Aging Research Laboratory at the University of Texas, swimming “stimulates mobility –without pain—and circulation.” Meanwhile, some of the other notables who swam every day include Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, and writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks, who was often able to gain inspiration while swimming. Henry David Thoreau swam in Walden pond every morning, “as a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did.” Swimming combines the benefits of regular breathing not unlike the relaxation that comes from meditation, along with aerobic exercise and deep focus. It turns out, swimming and water immersion make you feel good. Tsui says, “In this year of sorrow, plunging into the ocean or pool or lake has been essential for me — it is momentary relief, forgetting and unburdening. Immersion is cleansing and conducive to play, even when things are heavy. Our dopamine levels rise, our metabolisms rev up.” Here in Lower Manhattan, one of the most iconic images of swimming pools turns up in Raging Bull, when Jake LaMotta finds Vicki at the Carmine Street Pool and falls in love. That same pool, now part of the renamed Tony Dapolita Recreation Center, is free and open to swimmers during the summer months. The rest of the year, an indoor pool offers reasonable membership fees and early morning hours. When pandemic regulations are over and done with, in Manhattan alone there are thirteen recreation centers; however, all New York City Recreation Centers, including the pools, are currently closed to the public. Dapolito’s center also offers after-school student care options. Other notable pools downtown for lap swimmers include Stuyvesant High School and Borough of Manhattan Community College Pool. Let’s hope they reopen soon! In the meantime, Asphalt Green awaits. “Water has long been a form of healing. For so many of us, it’s a restorative, an antidote for depletion and depression,” shares Tsui. Everybody into the pool! DT THE REFORMERS 2021 DOWNTOWNNYC
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EN VOGUE | FITNESS
SETS IN THE CITY 2020 will be known as the year Manhattan women traded their Jimmy Choos for lifting shoes. by Lalaina “Lala” Duncan photography by Rachel Tishler
WHEN NEW YORK LOCKED DOWN FOR THE COVID-19 pandemic last year, I was on vacation and figured I could improvise until things lifted — which had to be in a few weeks tops, right? “Workouts in the sand!” I decided, taking advantage of my surroundings. And honestly, why wasn’t I already doing this? Even though I was supposed to be on vacation, I was still taking meetings for the gym and frantically scouring the internet for fitness equipment I could have delivered and ready when I arrived back home. Back in New York, my clients were all one step ahead of me, transforming their living rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens into home gyms. They consulted me in the process:
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Client: “Should I get the 15s or 20s or both?” Me: “Obviously, both.” Client: “I can’t find 15s but they have kettlebells, should I get those?” Me: “Absolutely. We can do a lot with kettlebells.” Client: “Now the kettlebells are sold out but they have a barbell, what do think?” Me: “You have room for a barbell? Yes, get the barbell — but good luck finding plates for it, because it’s sold out everywhere I looked. You got the bands right?” Client: “Yeah, those are coming this week.” Me: “Perfect! Get the barbell and if you can, buy a landmine attachment. You can borrow plates from the gym. You’ll be good!” As we spoke and they continued to revamp their home gyms, It was becoming apparent that this was going to be longer than a few weeks. I started strategizing with clients on how they could continue to train at home, which led to Live Virtual Training sessions via FaceTime or Zoom. I’m not going to lie, there was something exciting about this new venture. I was able to maintain some normalcy during this time and do it out of the comfort of my own home. From a trainer’s perspective, I relished the challenge of trying to provide a good solid training session for my clients with minimal equipment. “Okay, so we’ve got two mini bands, one long red band, two 20 pound dumbbells, a 26 pound kettlebell and a yoga mat. I’m going to murder your legs. Happy Monday!” By the middle of summer, the novelty of minimalist training was wearing thin, and many of my clients were starting to install full gyms in their homes. One of my clients in the Hamptons turned her basement into a full gym that would rival any boutique fitness studio, while another client moved to a slightly bigger apartment on the Lower East Side just so that she could have a squat rack in her living room. But our training program never changed. No matter what, in the gym or at home, on Mondays we squat. And as my client, Rachel, says to me, “No problem, let me move the chaise lounge to make room for my new squat rack.” As a strength coach and trainer, this can be better than hearing “I love you” for the first time from a new beau. Now here we are a year later, and no one can predict what the future holds as the world starts to “open up.” What I can tell you is that in Manhattan and across the world, women are taking their health, fitness and strength into their own hands. A lot of my clients have expressed to me that they now feel more comfortable strength training at home because there’s less intimidation than being in a crowded gym. And they feel confident that when gyms do fully re-open, they can walk up to the squat rack, adjust the height, load the plates themselves and lift like a boss. The conversations I used to have with my girlfriends and clients about handbags, clothes, and shoes have now turned into “Hey, what do you think if I bought a trap bar, do you think I’ll use it?” My answer? “Abso-freaking-lutely!” DT
LAST WORD
LEWIS
OPEN MARKET Bob Lewis is the co-founder of the Fulton Stall Market, and has been a driving force in the local food movement for more than 40 years. He is also the co-founder of Greenmarket, a program of GrowNYC, a unique nonprofit organization that aims to strengthen regional agriculture by providing small family farms with the opportunity to sell their locally grown products directly to consumers, and to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to the freshest nutritious and affordable locally-grown food the region has to offer. Originally started in 1976 in a vacant lot by Lewis and his co-founder, Barry Benepe, the program grew to be the first retail farmers market to be located in Manhattan in decades. Lewis and Benepe helped spark the creation of over 125 farmers markets in all five boroughs. Almost 45 years later, Lewis is still contributing to that list with the creation of Fulton Stall Market, New York’s first indoor farmers market. Photography by Michael Fiedler
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