Happy Holidays and Wishing our our Community much success and happiness for 2021 !
Time to reflect, relax and be grateful. Have a wonderful Holiday.
Lets make our community the best it can be in 2021.
#destinationtribeca
Walking into GK Framing is like entering into an art gallery, showroom and workshop all in one. And one of the first things you notice is the amazing diversity of beautiful frames and art-work too. It’s one of those unique NYC places where design, and custom manufacturing meet seamlessly. This curious space is the creation of GK Framing founder, Elizabeth Goldfeder, who has been designing custom frames, for art lovers and collectors, for over three decades. Like many of our local designer-creator shops in Tribeca, Elizabeth’s workshop is a place to learn, discover design inspiration and find an elegant way to preserve & display your own art.
I was born in Manhattan, but grew up in Kings Park Long Island. It was a fun place to be a kid, especially being so close to the north shore. I left for Ithaca College when I was 17 and moved back to Manhattan right after graduation.
I live in the Financial District now. I raised my family in Chelsea and where I had my first shop.
GK Framing is proud to be recognized in the fine art and museum worlds as the preeminent archival framers in New York City. GK is well known for our one-on-one consultation services, guiding our clients in the conservation and restoration of artwork and our white-glove art installation services.
In 2014 we developed our mirror-TV technology company - Reflectel. Our premier job was for The Baccarat Hotel opposite MOMA. We design television concealment systems - “TV when on, Mirror when off!” We advise clients in designing smart-homes with full AV integration. Mirror-TV’s are a wonderful opportunity to use our frame design skills.
After graduation I thought I was going to work in the world of marketing research or broadcasting. In a chance meeting in 1983, I started helping a small family-owned custom frame shop, in Chelsea's west 22nd street neighborhood, with their business development. I quickly got more involved with the running of the business and within a short time, I ended up taking over their operation and overnight became a business owner, marketer, woodworker and designer. Being the owner, I quickly realized I had to become a jack of all trades. For me art fluency was natural as my father was an artist, so I had been exposed to the art world since I was a young child. To be passionate about framing, one must have a great appreciation and an affinity for caring for art.
My firm started in Chelsea, but in 2000 due to rising rents, we started looking in different neighborhoods to find a new home. I found our current location in Tribeca and moved the business here after an extensive renovation in mid 2001. This spacious, historic footprint gave me the opportunity to have a ground floor presence and create my vision of a state-of-the-art, archival framing laboratory replete with a clean-room, modern gallery space, a glorious showroom and incredible production facilities including a full on woodshop. Tribeca was a natural place for us to locate, especially with a large portion of the art world being downtown and Tribeca itself being home to many large ground floor yet to be converted factory spaces. We have found that, especially new clients, that come from all over, enjoy visiting our Tribeca location and exploring Tribeca then too.
My secret to success is truly loving what I do. Every day I am renewed knowing I am creating something beautiful or helping preserve someone’s important or sentimental artwork. The challenge is that it is also a lot of hard work. Therefore, you must have a passion for excellence and unflagging commitment to customer service. I revel in the details of our work, and have been fortunate to develop a team that has the same understanding of excellence and takes pride in their work. Our line of work, especially when dealing with irreplaceable art, means a 0% error margin. That requires thinking and caring people at all times. And I am lucky to have that type of team.
Tribeca is a unique part of New York. I love the historic energy and how quiet the streets are. It really feels like a neighborhood. The transportation is great with the A,C,E and number 1 minutes away! The community here is vibrant and we always enjoy meeting the local Tribecans. The sidewalks are wide and you never know who you may bump into. The store owners I know, like in the deli to my left and the liquor store to my right, are salt of the earth folks.
Most of our business is from private art collectors, museums and galleries, all over New York City. Our neighborhood business including Soho and Fidi is approximately 20% of our business. We look forward to the growing business community for B2B work in the upcoming years.
The majority of our business come from referrals and word of mouth. Fortunately, we also have many clients who are the 2nd generation art collectors and galleries whose families and partners have been working with us for years. The professional art community at large is a large source of business for GK as well. These are huge testaments to our commitment to quality. Like others, GK has started having a social media presence and has been putting time into refreshing our website. As of late, now that my children are grown, I’ve been going to more networking events after work. Meeting like-minded people is always a plus.
GK has had the honor of preserving and framing many significant works of art. I confess that seeing a Degas Ballerina pastel out of its frame was a huge thrill. Seeing the actual pastel flakes humbled me. (Our work space is specially prepared for works of this value). It is awe inspiring to frame original Picasso and Miro canvases among others. All the art we preserve and frame has a story, whether it is a priceless museum piece or someone’s family heirloom. It’s a privilege to be trusted by all our clients.
Tribeca is a great community, but it is low density. My advice would be to make sure you are a special destination location. The secret of Tribeca is that it has a “cool factor”! Capitalize on that. One of the wonderful synergies I have with the neighborhood is sharing all the jewels of Tribeca with my clients including the restaurants and the small unique businesses. Most people love to explore and learn. The more you put into the community the more rewarding it is. At GK/Reflectel we have been offering programming in our space; that is also something I would share with a new business in the neighborhood. We have hosted art pop-ups for artists, discussion groups focused on art history or archival framing, and to nonprofits having discrete events. We have some new initiatives up our sleeve, including a fun one for the kids of Tribeca but we are keeping that under wraps until the idea is more formulated. Stay tuned is all I can say; it’s going to be fun.
My client base is growing, especially with the advent of Reflectel Mirror TVs, we are drawing clients from all over NYC and the tri-state area. Funnily I get quite a few tourists now! When I have a client lunch I love to take them to my favorite local hangouts like Estancia or our new favorite coffee shop Interlude. For a fancy meal we have a bevy of choices right on Greenwich Street. I am always sharing with my clients the wonderfully preserved historical architecture and telling them to “look up”. Recently I learned all about St Johns Church on Varick Street and the amazing St. Johns Park, sadly, alas all now paved over with the Holland Tunnel. But the one highlight that will always remain is our amazing river views of the Hudson. Any day is a good day to wander and stroll to our awesome waterfront and take in the views of our vast cityscape.
GK Framing / Reflectel Mirror TV
Archival Framing, Art Restoration, Bespoke TV Mirrors
169 Hudson Street
New York NY 10013
Phone: 212 431-0633
gkframing.com | reflectel.com
Urban Archaeology is one of those unique, only in New York City shops; not only is the store an amazing resource for all sorts of wonderful lights, beautiful bathroom fixtures (both ornate and minimalist), stylish furniture and very unique tiles; Urban Archaeology manufactures most of what you see here in their Tribeca shop. They also custom build almost anything you want. Their motto is: “if you have a design idea, we can make it happen.” What started off years ago as an architectural salvage company by Gil Shapiro, grew, with the creative design hand of his wife Judith Stockman, into a firm that restores and creates masterpieces for residential, hotel and commercial clients all over the country. Even if you are not currently undertaking a renovation or construction project, visit Urban Archaeology, a true Tribeca store of creativity and inspiration.
Gil: I was raised in what amounted to City Housing in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Great place for me to grow up.
Judith: I was born and raised in Fairfield, CT – a very different place than Brooklyn [smiles], but came to Brooklyn early on in life to go to the Pratt Institute to study design.
We have lived in Tribeca since 1978. It was a very different neighborhood than it is now. Filled with artists, designers, and bunch of other creative, sometimes crazy, people living life. But even then, it had a great sense of community. We raised our daughter here, but did need to send her to the West Village for school, since no school existed down here yet.
We are probably best known in the industry as an architectural salvage place, since that’s the way we started. But we are sought after by designers, architects, retailers and developers for custom fabrication. We also are known for all our selections of bathroom furnishings, lighting fixtures and tile. Most of what you see in the shop we manufacturer in our workshop in Long Island City.
I had a passion, some may say “disease”, for finding architectural gems since I was a kid. I loved collecting old cabinets and such, restoring them and selling them. I had an entrepreneurial leaning even then. But I really got started when I was working at Hunter’s Point Steel, in Long Island City. That experience helped me with my restoration efforts since a lot of items – light, chairs, cabinets had major metal components. Back then, I had a warehouse in Bushwick where I stored most of my finds. Some of my first major acquisitions were buying all the furniture, lights and furnishings from a closed ice-cream shop and barber shop.
My first shop was opened in 1978 on Spring Street in Soho. We had a huge space where I could display all the architectural salvaged items. Then we moved to even bigger space on Lafayette Street, just south of Houston where we also had a workshop to do restorations. At this point we had received great deal of press and people came to know to come to us for great historic architectural pieces. In 1979 I met Judith, who had a successful design business of her own, and we became business and life partners. It was about that same time that The Puck Building, then next door to our store, was being renovated. They wanted us to make a series of lights for the lobby. Judith’s office created the product drawings, and we made them. That’s how we really got into the manufacturing business as well.
In 1995 we lost our lease and moved to the building in Tribeca, 143 Franklin Street, an old six story, 30,000sf plus, warehouse building. Because of its size, we had a showroom, offices, a large workshop and warehouse space there. It was grand. When our lease expired in 2015 we built a smaller showroom down the street. Staying in Tribeca was a natural decision for us, not just because we lived here, but because there were a number of designers and architects downtown, and still are.
We obviously love Tribeca. Love it because of its historic architecture, and stayed because of the people, the other shops and restaurants. We have done work in many of the buildings down here. For example, we produced or sourced all the products for bathrooms in the Greenwich Hotel – each one had to be unique. It was wonderful fun and an exciting challenge. We also made all the door hardware, cremone bolts for all the windows and the lighting too. We supplied the vintage lighting in the library and medallions on the façade.
It’s hard to say, but we have about 20-30% from what you may call locals, but we have clients all over the country and the world. About 70% of our work is custom work for designers, architects and developers.
It’s mainly been word of mouth, some advertising and now social media. We got established when in Soho, and ever since people know to come to us for unique architectural items, lighting and bath furnishings.
One of the first things a business needs is a good sustainable lease. Then one needs to take the time to design a store that is welcoming, and of course, to focus on what the neighborhood actually needs.
We love Tribeca – its home. Although we reminisce about the old days, we love how Tribeca has grown and changed. Love that it’s a real walking neighborhood too. Love walking around our neighborhood, admiring all the historic structures and love to go out to the esplanade along the Hudson River Park. It all combines to make Tribeca a dynamic beautiful part of our city.
Urban Archaeology
Design Store and Manufacturer of Lighting, Bath Furnishings, Furniture and Tiles
158 Franklin Street, NYC 10013
Phone: (212) 371-4646
Hours: Mon-Fri 8am – 5pm, Sat & Sun closed
www.urbanarchaeology.com
Trinity Boxing is truly unique. And so are its owners. More than a boxing gym, run by Martin Snow and his brother John Snow (the original John Snow by the way) it is a place to make people better through boxing. As Martin says, “there will never be another you in all of history, and we are the only ones who do what we do – we educate people in the sweet science and sport of boxing.” Be sure to stop by and see Martin. But if you see him outside, be ready to catch a football.
I grew up Flatbush, Brooklyn. I am a Brooklyn guy. I grew up in a neighborhood, that’s why I am so passionate about the Tribeca neighborhood.
Now that is a long story. Short version is I got involved with boxing during college while at Fordham. I started at Gleason’s Gym. After college, I entered the NYC Golden Glove. I was pretty decent and made it to the finals at the Garden. In the early 1990’s, I started teaching boxing at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn and also at other health clubs and gyms. In 1997, we opened our own gym on New Street, behind the New York Stock Exchange. We survived the World Trade Center attacks, and in 2004 we opened Trinity Boxing at Greenwich and Carlisle Streets. We got flooded by Sandy, rebuilt, but ultimately had to move and came to Duane Street in 2016. We also opened a gym out in LA in 2006 since we were training so much there.
Teaching boxing to anyone. And through boxing we make people better at what they do. Boxing has mental, physical and spiritual sides to it, so it challenges you in all those ways. We help people you find your guts, and teach you to think on your feet, literally and figuratively.
Because it’s in NYC. I love New York. This location is good too because it’s in the shadow of the World Trade Center. We always remember what happened. We New Yorkers got knocked down hard, but we got back up and we never gave up. We still have to fight the good fight – making yourself, your neighbors and community better. And being here in Tribeca, I can do that.
Throwing a football. [Martin smiles]. I don’t really do any traditional marketing. It’s all been word of mouth and interacting with people. I will stand outside the gym, between sessions, talk to people, and a lot of times I will have my football. If you make eye contact, and have a hand free, you are an eligible receiver.
Gotta love what you do. And when you open a business, you are not here just to make a buck, but to serve people, serve the neighborhood and try to make the neighborhood better.
Trinity Boxing Club
116 Duane Street, NYC 10013
(212) 374-9393 | trinityboxing.com
Originally a small quintessential coffee shop for Tribecans, founded on a simple belief that business and fair trade can be a vehicle for positive change, The Laughing Man, still a local hang-out serving great coffee, has real global reach and impact via its Laughing Man Foundation. Co-founder David Steingard sat with T.A.P to explain his and partner, Hugh Jackman’s, passion to facilitate transformational development of coffee farming communities through fair trade.
Read MoreARC Athletics is Tribeca’s personal gym space. It’s a fitness and performance training studio where your training is personal. It has everything you need (really – it’s a much bigger space than it seems) from getting ready for the marathon (which Gene has run a few times himself), or simply keeping in shape, or recovering from an injury, or helping train your kids on how to be better athletes. With over 20 years of athletic training, and a NATABOC certified athletic trainer, Gene can get you the body and health you want.
Read MoreDowntown Dance Factory is an award-winning dance studio for kids, and even adults, in the heart of Tribeca. Although clients come from all over NYC, DDF was humbly started as a dance studio for the Tribeca community by two Tribeca mothers wanting to create a space where kids could express themselves through dance.
Read MoreWhen was the last time that you had worked with someone who put your needs on top of their priority list, first and foremost? Get solutions to your IT problems now. Learn more about CMIT Solutions of Tribeca, company president, David Grubb.
Read MoreA UNO TRIBECA is a shop that offers sportswear collections, accessories and shoes from all over the world; we present clients with innovative designers that have collections with a downtown urban vibe and slight edge.
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For more than twenty years, Dudley's Paw has been a unique place where owners and their pets get a special treat. Learn more about the story of Dudley's Paw and owner, Yvonne Fox, in the Luminaries of Tribeca.
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