Tihany Design - Tapa dura

Internationally known architect Adam D. Tihany has created some of the world's best-known restaurant and hotel interiors. His famous integrated design approach -- in which he links architecture, interior design, graphics, furniture, and tableware design -- is evident in each one. Energy, excitement, and spontaneity, along with careful consideration of the smallest details, characterize Tihany's works. This first monograph on the architect features more than forty of his restaurants and hotels as well as designs for furniture, china, and tableware, including his famed Bombay Sapphire martini glass.

The riotous colors and forms of Le Cirque 2000 and the classically modern composition of Jean Georges, both in New York, represent two important aspects of Tihany's work. Other renowned projects included -- all presented in color photographs and the designer's sketches -- are the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, Monte's spectacular four-story private club in London, the Time Hotel in New York, the fashionable restaurant Gundel in Budapest, and Tihany's own Venetian restaurant, Remi, with locations in Santa Monica and New York. The architect's accompanying project descriptions are lively and engaging, sharing not only the design and realization of the works but the circumstances and personalities involved, and make it clear that his restaurants, while offering entertainment, are also architecture of the highest caliber.

Adam D. Tihany, the world's best-known restaurant designer, founded Adam D. Tihany International in New York in 1978. His work has been shown in architecture and design magazines around the world.

Paul Goldberger is the architectural critic and a staff writer at The New Yorker.