Union Square Cafe architect dies at 64

Larry Bogdanow, the founder of Bogdanow Partners Architects whose projects included some of Manhattan’s best-known restaurants, died at age 64 on Wednesday, according to the New York Times. A part-time farmer and a member of the “slow food” movement, Bogdanow was awarded many jobs from restaurateurs with similar passions. He got his first big restaurant design job from Danny Meyer, who commissioned Bogdanow and Warren Ashworth to design Union Square Cafe in the mid-1980s. Some restaurants also designed by Bogdanow include the Cub Room in Soho, Tribeca’s City Hall restaurant, Telepan on the Upper West Side and Flatiron restaurants Union Pacific and Beppe. He also designed a restaurant on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center that was destroyed during the Sept. 11 attacks. “His interest in urban craftsmanship, evident in restaurants like Union Square Café and the Cub Room, really anticipated the industrial urban aesthetic that’s prevalent right now, although he was more fabric and wood than metal and glass,” the designer David Rockwell said. “He created iconic projects, but he always designed from the details out — the light-fixture level.” According to the Times, Bogdanow’s self-reported design staples include using Masonite walls, applying a lacquer finish to generate a leather affect and painting pine floors green and red before waxing them to produce a multicolored look. [NYT]