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Untitled at the Whitney, Featuring KnollStudio, Wins James Beard Award for Restaurant Design

The James Beard Foundation awarded Untitled the 2016 James Beard Foundation Outstanding Restaurant Design Award in the category for 75 seats and under. Designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in collaboration with Cooper Robertson, the Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group restaurant occupies the ground floor of the new Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Untitled opened in the spring of 2015 and is helmed by Chef Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern.

The restaurant has "a certain sense of mystery and evolution," as Anthony says in a video by T Magazine. Red Saarinen Executive Armchairs and Saarinen Executive Armless Chairs contribute a significant design element, bringing a bright element to an otherwise neutral palette. Untitled is also furnished by other modern and contemporary Knoll pieces, including NeoCon Gold-winning Pixel Column Leg Tables (designed by Marc Krusin). Bertoia Side Chairs provide outdoor seating.

At entrance level, the Renzo Piano design is completely glazed, producing a sense of dissolved boundary between street and interior. "Visually, there's a really interesting confusion between indoor space and outdoor space," Anthony says in the T Magazine video. "Transparency means to the architect one thing, and yet a completely different meaning when it comes to food."

Suzanne Cups, chef de cuisine of Untitled / Studio Cafe, believes the space's vibrant and transparent design is in dialogue with the direction of the kitchen. "It's a really cool space to experience something culturally, like art, as well as come and have a really delicious meal," she says in the T Magazine video, adding: "They're actually intertwined."

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Bertoia Side Chair
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Saarinen Executive Chair - Armless with Tubular Legs
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Saarinen Executive Chair - Armchair with Tubular Legs
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Pixel by Marc Krusin