PORCELANOSA Releases Commodore Criterion Building Renovation Plans

PORCELANOSA, a global leader in the innovation, design, manufacturing and distribution of luxury tile, kitchen and bath products, today released new images and details behind its plans to refurbish the Commodore Criterion building. Situated in the northwest side of Madison Square Park at 5th Avenue and Broadway, the building will soon be the new site of PORCELANOSA's US/NYC flagship showroom. With the interior demolition complete, PORCELANOSA has confirmed the grand opening is scheduled for spring 2014.

"As a staple of New York's Flatiron district for years, the Commodore Criterion is the ideal location for PORCELANOSA's new flagship showroom as the neighborhood is the epicenter of New York's architecture and design community," said Manuel Prior , US Branch Director for PORCELANOSA. "The new building also represents PORCELANOSA's growing presence in the US, and firm commitment to quality, innovation and design."

PORCELANOSA purchased the Commodore Criterion in 2012 and selected Foster + Partners, headed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winning architect Lord Norman Foster, to refurbish the 18,000 square-feet, six story high building. The Commodore Criterion is included on New York's protected properties list and PORCELANOSA and Foster + Partners have worked diligently to ensure that the project will preserve its historic exterior while refurbishing the interior to reflect PORCELANOSA's innovative style.

The new space includes a showroom with full-scale vignettes showcasing PORCELANOSA's vast product portfolio, including floor and wall coverings, and kitchen and bath solutions. An entire floor of the building will be used as a design library with more than 1000 references of tiles, mosaics, stones, hardwoods and other fine materials— an ideal working space for architects and designers.

"Porcelanosa's new Manhattan flagship showroom is in a great location, close to the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway and opposite the Flatiron Building. The design will create new visual connections vertically through the building and will introduce a greater variety of spaces, with a series of dramatic interlocking levels," said Norman Foster . "The design will restore historic aspects of the exterior and create a new interior experience of large-volume show room spaces— all within the context of a sustainable agenda."

Norman Foster is chairman and founder of Foster + Partners, a worldwide practice based in London. Foster became the 21st Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate in 1999 and has received the Praemium Imperiale Award for Architecture and the Prince of Asturias award for the Arts. In 1999, he was honoured with a Life Peerage, becoming Lord Foster of Thames Bank. In New York his practice has built the Hearst Building and the Sperone Westwater Gallery on the Bowery and has recently been appointed to design 425 Park Avenue and the re-imagining of the New York Public Library.