Avenue Road

In partnership with Avenue Road

By Jennifer Leigh Parker

The Road Less Traveled

An inside look at Avenue Road, the company on a mission to unite the world’s best design minds with established craftspeople.

CHRISTOPHE DELCOURT

Christophe Delcourt is a discreet Parisian with immense talent for personal, purpose-driven design, formed gradually and diligently over the course of his lifetime. Back in 1995, when he opened his first furniture shop in the Marais, Paris, he had created the catalyst that would launch his career, and ultimately propel him to this moment: a sit-down interview on his own custom-designed couch, inside Avenue Road’s glamorous New York City showroom. 

By the 2000s, Delcourt had outgrown the Marais, moving his eponymous design company to an expansive, light-filled atelier on the top floor of a former piano factory in the Seventh Arrondissement, where client tête-a-têtes gradually lead to the creation of sumptuously outfitted interiors. Of course, his approach sounds better in Delcourt’s language: “Les pièces sont dessiner pour justement pouvoir être adapter à la demande de chacun.” Translation: His product line is more haute couture than prêt-à-porter. You don’t go to Delcourt to buy off-the-rack. Everything is tailor-made to fit the client’s personality and lifestyle. 

“I deteste uniformity. Don’t tell me you’re a New Yorker and that’s it. I want specifics. I need to understand my clients. I need to know what universe they live in, as well as how they live,” the self-taught designer says. 

He is the picture of a craftsman—a faithful carpenter who has spent his life working with his hands. Someone so steeped in raw materials, you can almost hear him sanding and polishing the wood, brass, marble, and leather that surrounds him. But if you start him on the subject of French manufacturing, Delcourt becomes vehemently patriotic. For him, traditional French craftsmanship is not only the foundation of his trade, it’s integral to his sense of identity and purpose. 

“In France, we have a strong manufacturing tradition. And manual workers are culturally very important. We call ourselves le patrimoine—members of a heritage that is passed down from generation to generation. Today we realize this craft is precious and we must fight to conserve it,” says Delcourt. What’s more, his clients have come to expect it. You’ll never find a mass-produced industrial object chez Delcourt. What you will find instead is an artful collection of furniture and lighting that subtly blends perfectionism with tangible sensuality. 

For example, the look and feel of Delcourt’s Avenue Road collection of furniture pieces is smooth, solid, and sturdy. Consisting of wood dining tables, hand-stitched sofas, and brushed-brass lamps, everything in the collection is constructed by French manufacturers, and built to last. “I want to make designs that are timeless. There is no plastic, nothing toxic, or fragile. This type of quality you can’t do en masse,” he says, adding, “I find it very pretentious to say, ‘I will make furniture for millions.’”

Whether or not he intends it, Delcourt is a champion of slow design. The more successful he becomes, the harder he clings to his roots. For him, French craftsmanship is sacred, and in Avenue Road he found a partner that would both respect and support that belief, by championing quality above profit. Delcourt has no desire to open new stores or speed up production. Instead, he takes his time, trusts the process, and allows the product to form in his hands.

GEORGE YABU & GLENN PUSHELBERG

When Stephan Weishaupt first approached two of the world’s most prolific designers to launch Avenue Road in 2007, he didn’t have to convince them. Glenn Pushelberg and George Yabu already knew Weishaupt well and trusted him implicitly. 

“It was a natural relationship. Stephan wanted to increase his roster of designers, and we wanted a platform for our custom furniture. Since then, he’s become a great partner and patron,” says Pushelberg, sitting at ease next to Yabu inside their swank offices in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. They’re here just a few days each week, before flying to their flagship studio in Toronto, summer home in The Hamptons, or working on site with brands such as Louis Vuitton, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, or Carolina Herrera. From the outside, it appears to be a stylish, globetrotting lifestyle, tailored specifically to the personalities living it—an approach that generally describes their design practice. 

Avenue Road, named by Yabu after a main street in Toronto, can be thought of as an extension of their adventurous spirit. “On our travels, I started noticing strange names on streets,” Yabu recalls. “I liked Avenue Road because it doesn’t apply to any particular city, yet it applies to the world at large. It was just a funny way of tying destinations together, while making the brand more worldly.”

Yabu Pushelberg’s collections for Avenue Road also bear names recalling cities around the world—such as the Park Place stool, Berkeley Square lounge chair, and Perry Street sofa. These names evoke memories of particular places, which are ultimately meant to prompt a similar emotional response in the user of each piece. In this way, Yabu Pushelberg uses design as a means of communication, to capture a specific time and experience. They consider themselves storytellers, and design is their chosen language. Since they began making furniture, in 1980, they’ve been translated around the world, and have become Officers of the Order of Canada—the country’s highest honor—for their contributions to design excellence. 

Partnerships like Avenue Road helped them achieve it. Though their eight years as co-owners of Avenue Road have come to a close, as Stephan Weishaupt assumed full ownership in 2016, Yabu and Pushelberg continue to serve on its advisory board. “The best thing about working with Stephan is that you can really do some eccentric stuff,” says Pushelberg. “He’s willing to take risks—like, say, manufacturing an Italian marble bar cart or unusually shaped sofa, just because it’s beautiful.”

SEBASTIAN HERKNER 

At 36, Sebastian Herkner is one of the youngest designers on Avenue Road’s roster. He’s also an obvious choice for the fast-growing company, given his talent for combining cutting-edge technique with traditional craftsmanship. 

Herkner hails from Offenbach, Germany, an industrial city turned tech hub on the outskirts of Frankfurt. (He affectionately calls it “the Brooklyn of Frankfurt.”) It is here that he earned his degree at the Offenbach University of Art and Design, opened his own studio in 2006, and has since garnered international recognition, including the 2011 German Design Award for Best Newcomer and the Red Dot Design Award for his Bell table—a sculptural yet functional accent table, manufactured by ClassiCon and made of tinted, hand-blown glass that elegantly morphs into a solid brass top. That these two materials appear to merge seamlessly and without effort is what caught Stephan Weishaupt’s attention: “The Bell table was the starting point.” 

Soon after they met, Weishaupt invited Herkner to Toronto to check out Avenue Road’s showroom, which presents a sophisticated mix of European and American style. Merging cultural contexts is one of Avenue Road’s strong suits—a skill that attracted Herkner to the company, and one that he’s now beginning to master himself. 

“My work is about curiosity, openness, communication. It’s so interesting to spend time with artisans from other cultures,” Herkner says. Encouraged by Avenue Road to travel for design, Herkner is currently developing new collections in Bogotá, Colombia, following recent trips to Zimbabwe and rural Japan. Much like Weishaupt, Herkner travels the world mindfully—seeking new sources of inspiration in objects that are personal and distinctive, rather than trendy or common.

Herkner also believes that timelessness is a tenet of good design, and has felt validated in recent years at fairs such as Salone del Mobile in Milan and Maison&Objet in Paris, which represent the top of today’s market. Here, his contemporaries are using brass, marble, and hand-carved woods to reimagine traditional furniture typologies: the classic room-divider screen, luxurious chaise lounges. Little is plastic, and almost everything lasts decades. “Nowadays, so much of our industry is reduced to appliances. But we really crave tactile permanence,” he says. “The purpose of design is not just to do nice things. We are just as responsible for societal behavior as anyone else. Design sets our parameters for life.”