ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST
October 2004

A Stroll Through Tribeca
Architect Joseph Giovannini finds neighborhood charm in New York City - text by Joseph Giovannini / photography by Theo Westenberger

.........Johnson & Hicks is another newcomer. Like so many of the shops here, the store has a unique focus that grows out of the interest of its owner: Early to mid 20th century modernism, especially from central and eastern Europe. Lisa Weimer owns the store.

A daughter of an art dealer, Lisa Weimer has an independent eye, and she's expanded her interest in modernist furniture beyond Art Deco and the well-thumbed pantheon of French masters. I've never seen a Czech Cubist piece outside the Czech Republic, and certainly nothing for sale even there, but here at the corner of Hudson and Franklin, I covet a rare salon set, with an angular settee and two matching barrel side chairs crafted in Prague around 1912 from French walnut. Hungarian pieces from the 1930's by Lajos Kozma meld seamlessly into an assortment of benches, side tables and settees by Otto Wagner and Josef Hoffmann; their compatibility shows how culturally integrated the countries were before the Iron Curtain erected partitions in our mind dividing them into different camps. Whether the pieces are early or mid century, quality here is the binder: "They all live together," says Lisa Weimer.