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Haller designed the original factory building (above, background) in
1965 and the current production hall in 1997 (above, foreground).
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His modular furniture (above and below), which became the former hardware
fixtures company's sole offering, was released in 1969.
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The Kitos corner desk (above) and Display panel (below) are newer
additions to the collection.
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Like all of the USM furniture used by Hugo Boss, that in the company's
Manhattan administrative offices (above and below) is painted a custom
gray.
Photos: Roberto D'Addona
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All images, courtesy USM
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Conceptually akin to the prefab architecture of the USM building, Haller's
now classic office system is based on steel sphere joints, connecting
tubes, and panels that afford Erector-set variability. Fitted with a variety
of organizational elements and colors, Haller Systems can be made into storage
units, bookshelves, sideboards, showcases, and credenzas--depending on individual
or corporate needs. Over the years USM has added complementary products,
including the height-adjustable Kitos table, created with computer work
in mind; Display, a solid upright frame that can be fitted with various
panels to become room dividers, whiteboards, or privacy screens; and the
soon-to-be released Eleven22, a flexible modular system with work-surface,
shelving, storage, and panel add-ons.
But Haller continues to be USM's mainstay. "People are drawn to the
system because of the grid's simplicity," says Ted Zakowski, president
of USM USA, "but once they understand its aesthetic beauty the functionality
takes over." It is not unusual for clients to come into a USM showroom
wanting to expand, reconfigure, or change the color on a 20-year-old
system. Although USM offers 11 colors, ranging from Pure White and Graphite
Black to Golden Yellow and Ruby Red, the majority of clients take on a Henry
Ford attitude when specifying. "Black, black, and black," says
Zakowski of the most popular choice. "A good comparison would be with
sports cars, where although people like to see a splash of red sometimes,
black is the power color. It evokes a certain status."
As with its beginnings in Europe, USM believes that its reputation in this
country will be spread first and foremost through architects and designers.
"Right now we have little to no brand recognition," Zakowski says.
"So our focus will be on utilizing the new showroom not only to educate
the community but to become what USM stands for in Europe: a cultural resource."
In addition to showing off its goods, USM plans to host lectures, exhibitions,
and parties geared to attract the city's top creative minds--a strategy
that has worked well in the company's Berlin, Hamburg, and Bern showrooms.
Another way that USM's modular meme will spread, of course, is through actual
specification and word of mouth. So far in New York USM has gotten
the most play from European businesses with offices in the city. When
Swiss Re--a large insurance company and repeat USM specifier--opened
up its U.S. headquarters in a Skidmore, Owings & Merrill skyscraper
on East 52nd Street two years ago, a combination of Haller furniture and
Kitos tables were chosen by Gensler Associates to create visual continuity
between offices and open-plan areas. Over the years Swiss Re has been
so impressed by USM's offerings that it made Haller Systems an official
part of its worldwide corporate identity program.
Architecturally savvy companies seem to be USM's most avid clients. Schlumberger,
the $14 billion-a-year global conglomerate, for example, has a long history
of incorporating architecture into its identity. With facilities created
by Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, and Philip Johnson, it's no surprise that
when the company's new Manhattan office on the 57th floor of the
Citigroup building was conceived, USM played a vital part in establishing
an impressive space with perhaps the best views in town. Working closely
with Schlumberger's CEO, architect Woody Rainey created an entirely open-plan
design on one-and-a-half floors using "cosmic geometry" and
custom-modified Haller and Kitos elements. (Passing up USM's preexisting
palette, the company has Haller storage and filing cabinets in Schlumberger
Blue, a color created by graphic designer Milton Glaser.) The largely rectilinear
furniture is lined up on a true north-south axis, which gives the space
an appealing diagonal sweep that links Schlumberger's executive-board section
with a café that serves as an alternate reception area. Schlumberger's
top-drawer art collection--shared with Houston's renowned de Menil family--practically
blends into this "Masters of the Universe" backdrop. "When
I asked the chairman of the company about the art," Rainey explains,
"he said, 'As far as I'm concerned, the architecture is what Schlumberger's
about; we'll hang the art anywhere.'"
USM has also been closely identified with European fashion brands like
Hugo Boss, which has used Haller in all of its administrative offices,
including a 40,000-square-foot mixed-use space on West 26th Street in Manhattan.
With a central-core space that is used for fashion shows and exhibitions,
two showrooms, a conference room, and more than 200 workstations and 25
offices, the company has successfully extended its brand into three
dimensions by using Haller throughout. (Like Schlumberger, Hugo Boss requested
that its own custom color, a gray, be used on all systems.) "The great
thing about Haller," says Thomas McKay of MSM Architects, the project's
principle architect, "is it can be a backdrop if you want it to be,
or it can have a lot of character." For Hugo Boss it's both depending
on where you are. In the executive offices that overlook the Hudson
River, the sleek rectilinear desks, credenzas, and mobile storage units
are echoed by the window's grid and the horizon beyond; in the open-plan
offices the Haller elements are used more architecturally, forming
their own interior cityscapes.
It was while working with Hugo Boss that USM found the appropriate architect
for its own New York space. McKay's precisionist work seemed a match for
the Swiss company, whose European showrooms are designed in the spirit of
its furniture. The recent opening of USM's New York flagship heralds
the first phase of a two-year-long rehabilitation of an entire 35,000-square-foot
nineteenth-century cast-iron building on Greene Street that, with its decrepit
facade and mansard roof, long had the air of a haunted house. McKay has
masterminded a renovation that ultimately will be a study in contrasts:
an interior of cool, glowing glass doors; staircases and skylights that
emphasize USM's brisk Swiss aesthetic; and a gussied-up, historically correct
exterior that reads old New York. In addition to the ground-floor showroom
and lower-level offices that opened last month, renovations due for
completion next year include a commercial space on the second floor;
three residential rentals on the third, fourth, and fifth floors;
and a 6,000-square-foot corporate apartment on the top. The apartment's
crowning feature will be a penthouse bedroom made out of USM's Mini prefab
architectural system--an appropriate homage to the now deceased architect,
and a striking link between the building and USM's history.
Dealing with New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission led McKay
and his team to discover another interesting bridge between past and present:
the building's ornate facade, which has to be re-created to perfection over
the next year, was originally constructed from a kit of parts shipped to
the city and screwed in on-site. "It's very similar to USM furniture,"
McKay comments, "minus, of course, the ornamentation."
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