BoND Designs Company Gallery’s New Lower East Side Location   

The legacy of modern architecture and design does not lack couples who live and produce together. While heteronormative dynamics often times have cast a male-centric shadow over women creators like Noémi Raymond or Ray Eames, many queer designers today work towards disrupting such biases. Since Daniel Rauchwerger and Noam Dvir launched BoND two years ago, the New York-based duo has been focusing on projects that elevate queer visibility. Company Gallery’s new Lower East Side location is one of the first projects they embarked on while maintaining full-time jobs during their professional transition. 

After meeting at Harvard Graduate School of Design and cutting their teeth at OMA New York, the two designers merged forces to reimagine gallerist Sophie Mörner’s avant-garde art space, known for its cult following. “I had designed gallery spaces before and Noam is equipped in technical aspects, such as building systems and restoration permits,” Rauchwerger tells Interior Design. 

There could hardly be a better launching pad than Company Gallery for the BoND founders. Queer spaces, nightlife, performance art, and downtown’s creative legacy are just a few of numerous interests the designers share with the gallery’s roster, which includes late lesbian video art icon, Barbara Hammer, and sculptor of colorful beaded figures, Raúl de Nieves. “Our first step was to familiarize ourselves with the artists and craft a space that would best suit Sophie’s understanding of a gallery as a community space,” Dvir says. 

From performances to book launches and opening parties, the gallery is envisioned as a dynamic venue, and the duo’s plan to swiftly blend each section throughout the 40,000-square-foot space fits the bill. Formerly a warehouse, the two-floor Lower East Side corner storefront welcomes visitors with street artist Miss 17’s graffiti over a metallic-hued facade. 

The first floor gallery is laid over a 1,060-square-foot range with expansive walls and ceiling windows, in addition to lighting designed by local firm, Dot Dash. “We kept the offices and the gallery intertwined rather than siloing the two,” Dvir adds. While holding traits of a typical white cube gallery, the main section leads to a surprising pocket of an atrium nook where the soaring ceiling reaches as high as 22 feet within a modest 175-square-foot room. “We envision a single sculpture or a performance in this surprising corner,” Rauchwerger explains. A gentle archway ties two rooms, “providing a key hole to make the visitor curious about the other side,” he adds. They consider such visual accents subtle signatures that designers can leave in muted spaces, such as art galleries, where architecture serves a backdrop for art.  

An aha moment awaits in the basement—a darkened gallery painted in black and covered with same-colored carpeting. Besides an homage to their favorite nightclubs, the designers orchestrated the gallery with video art in mind. The nocturnal ambience continues in the adjacent room, a red neon-lit lesbian bar named after the gallery owner. The duo finds a joy in working with clients who are not afraid to take “consciously campy” aesthetic steps, such as pink Murano chandeliers and cheetah print rugs dressing the bar. 

Changing experiences of colors and textures motivated the designer couple throughout where historical elements of a downtown warehouse bleed into the needs of a cutting-edge art space. “By focusing on parts where art will be exhibited, we left in-between sections as untreated as possible,” Dvir says. The decision to balance the sleek with the exposed has led to a variety of textures, washed in their determined yet surprising color choices in each section.  

Since signing onto the project last fall, BoND has expanded its staff to four, moved to a Chelsea office, and broadened its clientele with 16 projects. “We do design collaboratively but also take different roles in new projects,” Rauchwerger adds. Up next, the two are focused on several residential projects as well as a theater in Manhattan, and a tech company headquarters.