“It’s like a place to escape,” he said. He was looking out the window of his teahouse, which is notable for both its surreal tranquility amid the urbanity outside and the views it affords of the Hudson River, two enormous water towers, and the rising One World Trade Center. For those who are able to kneel with their back straight, there is a room of tatami mats, but Sugimoto has also designed a table for 10 out of thousand-year-old Canadian cedar, the base of which is made of the optical glass used in camera lenses. Still, for all of Sugimoto’s attention to tradition, tea is not the only tonic to be served in the house. “We can definitely have champagne parties here,” he said cheerfully. “Of course, if I take all my time to do this, then I will have no time to make art.”
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- Art & Design
21st-century Teahouse
Artist Hiroshi Sugimoto has erected a rotating repository for his eclectic collection of millennia-spanning ephemera. Diane Solway visits a Manhattan aerie unlike any other.
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- 2011 Art Issue
