Somerset House Settles Into a Storied Queens Landmark  

Many of New York’s most coveted design destinations hide in plain sight. Quarters, the gallery, showroom, and wine bar founded by Galerie Creative Mind studio In Common With, operates behind an unmarked door up a narrow Tribeca stairwell. Nickey Kehoe inhabits a former Greenwich Village brownstone; Lawson-Fenning transformed a sprawling fifth-floor loft nearby into the craft-forward furniture purveyor’s first New York outpost.  

Somerset House, founded by former fashion designer Alan Eckstein and his wife, Haley Lowenthal, belongs to this discreet circle. What began as his staging business in the 2010s has matured into a vintage furniture studio distinguished by a seasoned curatorial eye—Eckstein pairs Italian rarities and Danish Modern classics with Baroque and Primitive works—and by his devotion to faithfully restoring pieces with respect for their origins. He named the studio after the street where he grew up in Great Neck, New York, in a nod to the personal sensibility that continues to shape his approach today. 

After running a storefront in Williamsburg and later a tucked-away showroom in Long Island City, Eckstein recently unveiled his most ambitious venture yet: a 10,000-square-foot gallery inside the Metropolitan Building, a 1909 former electrical factory in the same neighborhood near the Queensboro Bridge, now reborn as a creative hub. When developer Adam Joly of Igloo first walked him through the building, Eckstein felt an instant connection. “It’s a unique space that had been left undeveloped for decades, full of so much character everywhere,” he tells Galerie. The structure sat dormant for 70 years until interior designer Eleanor Ambos revived it in 1980; more recently, The Vorea Group began reimagining it as a crucible for creative enterprise.  

Now, following years of collaboration with Igloo and Vorea, Eckstein has realized his vision for a full-fledged design emporium that unites showroom, restoration workshop, and studio under one soaring roof. The new Somerset House unfolds through a sequence of artful vignettes that evoke the intimacy and layering of a lived-in home, leading visitors through seductive galleries aglow with vintage luminaires, rare furnishings, and fine art. “I was just overtaken by how incredible this building was and is,” says Eckstein, who also redesigned the building’s lobby and circulation spaces for Vorea. “It beams full of character on each floor, each one complete with its own special kind of patina.”  

The building’s bones remain proudly visible. Fifteen-foot ceilings, glass-block walls, arched doorways, and a vaulted skylight wrapped in custom wood cladding effortlessly charm, while original wood joists preserve century-old warmth. “The ceilings are composed of old New York wood that has the perfect brown stain to them,” Eckstein says. His favorite element, though, is the light. “There are extra-large, SoHo-like windows everywhere you look. We rely on daylight for our photography, as light is a big element to our visuals.” Because the Metropolitan Building rises several floors above its neighbors, sunlight floods the showroom throughout the day, drenching its rooms in a steady glow. 

Yet the eye inevitably settles on Somerset House’s extraordinary assemblage of handsome lighting and timeless furniture. Eckstein feverishly sources his exquisite and ever-expanding collection of 20th-century works from leading auction houses and specialist dealers, amassing a trove that spans styles and eras yet commingles in unexpected harmony. Highlights include pieces by Jacques Adnet, Lina Bo Bardi, Paolo Buffa, Axel Einar Hjorth, Pierre Jeanneret, Le Corbusier, and Gino Sarfatti, alongside Poul Henningsen pendant lamps from the 1920s and ‘30s and Noguchi Akari lamps suspended at varying heights—a Somerset House signature.  

Restoration sits at the core of Somerset House’s practice, always in service of original design integrity. Eckstein once re-foamed a Pierre Paulin ABCD sofa and reupholstered it in Dedar wool bouclé, and he sand-blasted the chrome from a Robert Sonneman floor lamp before powder-coating it in cream. Walls showcase consigned artworks, many from friends: light sculptures by Marrow Project, paintings by Joe Henry Baker, and photography by Clement Pascal. They hang beside centuries-old European religious art, early George Condo drawings, and works by Jean Prouvé, Franz Kline, and George Nakashima. 

“Somerset house is a little fantasy—it has to evolve, and we need new walls and spaces to experiment with,” Eckstein says. “Moving and setting up a new space has become somewhat indoctrinated in the program here.” He divided the 10,000-square-foot expanse into four zones: a main gallery, office, restoration workshop, and back-of-house area with walkable storage, an industrial kitchen, and a product-shooting setup. “The storage is unique because we designed it to open the doors to clients,” he says. “Typically, in showrooms and galleries, any inventory not on display is kept far from the actual display space. We’ve incorporated the storage into our client tour so that the full repertoire is available for viewing.” 

This immersive format encourages discovery, both for clients and Eckstein himself. “Somerset is involved in both residential and commercial projects, and many of our design trials and ideas start at the showroom,” he says. “I believe the continuation of building out a showroom really helps future design.” Expansion is already underway, with a Los Angeles location slated to open next year. “The space will be much smaller with unique details,” he teases. “We’re just really looking forward to introducing our voice there.”