The Office of Academic Affairs awarded Grace Spiezia ‘22 (MPSS) and Samantha Berlanga ’22 (MPSS), who worked on the capstone project featured on this page, the Chairman’s Award for her overall performance at NYSID. At NYSID, capstone projects are long journeys that challenge students to brainstorm, conduct research, and synthesize all they have learned. The journey ends with a presentation to a jury of faculty and industry professionals. Our students work closely with faculty to create hypothetical designs that offer solutions to real-world problems.

Student: Grace Spiezia & Samantha Berlanga
Project: Prohibition
Program: Master of Professional Studies in Sustainable Interior Environments
Instructor: Luca Baraldo & Bethany Borel

With Prohibition, Grace Spiezia and Samantha Berlanga set out to create a full-service healthy dining experience, offering locally sourced, pesticide-free foods in the footprint of a real building in Tribeca. The commercial space includes a market, outdoor eating, restaurant spaces, and a speakeasy, hidden by a secret entrance on the first floor. Spiezia and Berlanga took their cues from the neighborhood, celebrating the glamor of Art Deco style, and the history of secret speakeasies in New York. The motto of Prohibition is “Being Bad Never Felt So Good.” Spiezia, who was the Chairman’s Award winner for her program said, “We wanted our design to convey that being healthy and eating organically and locally doesn’t always mean eating a salad. We wanted the focus to be on pleasure.” Their instructors challenged them to infuse the design with several of William Browning’s 15 Patterns of Biophilic Design, and the pair chose Prospect, Refuge, and Mystery. The concepts of Prospect and Refuge are based on the idea that human beings in hunter gatherer societies needed to be able to hunt and forage, and then retreat to a place of safety when they were at rest. This is the reason Spiezia designed the restaurant’s unique curving booths with high backs to make the end users feel cocooned and safe. The concept of Mystery comes in the entrance to the basement speakeasy, which is dark and mirrored to create the impression of entering a different realm. All of the FF&E (furniture, fixtures, and equipment) in the space are locally sourced, GREENGUARD Gold Certified for healthier air, and have Health Product Declarations (HPDs) to rule out chemicals of concern. Spiezia and Berlanga took care to use products that were either recycled or extremely durable. Spiezia so impressed her instructors Luca Baraldo and Bethany Borel, both senior associates at COOKFOX Architects, that they recommended her for a job. She is now at COOKFOX working on an affordable housing project that will be LEED Gold Certified and Passive House Certified.