Brothers Saverio and Andrea Quadrio Curzio have labored through the summer to complete the 15,000-square-foot expansion of their Italian day spa, QC NY, at Building 111 on Governors Island.
The three-story, L-shaped Georgian Revival building wraps around the southeastern side of the spa campus directly opposite Building 112, its mirror image. (The “Building X” format is a quirk of Governors Island addresses, but it’s technically 112 Andes Road.) The spa has operated out of the latter for two years now, and also makes use of the lawn in between, which features three outdoor pools and a view of Battery Park fit for a king. The city’s office towers look like a mirage across the harbor.
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But QC is about to gain a lot more space, including a 142-seat bistro, six new relaxation rooms, two more saunas, plus a suite of massage rooms and company offices on the top floor.
QC chief designer Alessandro Bolis has scavenged Italy’s version of flea markets to outfit the space with handpicked creature comforts, like a set of sterling serving dishes and a porcelain platter shaped like a fish. Those items will hang on the walls.
Glassware for the spa’s new cocktail bar will be stacked in a cabinet that came from a market in Turin. The bistro’s other furnishings include a gaggle of café tables and custom Contardi lamps designed to resemble Audrey Hepburn’s wide-brim hat.
The space evokes the 1960s design boom in Italy, the period during which Achille Castiglioni gave the world the cantilevered Arco lamp.
“For me, this period in Italy saw a particular development in lifestyle that is very correct for this type of building,” Bolis said.
Whatever the influences, the Quadrio Curzio brothers certainly didn’t shy away from making the landmarked buildings on Andes Road part of the experience at QC NY. The pair of structures, along with Building 114 next door, belong to the Trust for Governors Island and were all constructed in 1934 for the U.S. Army, which used them to house officers and their families, according to a report drawn up in 1996 by the Landmarks Preservation Commission a year before most of Governors Island was handed back to the city.
Now the campus is devoted to “dolce far niente,” or the sweetness of doing nothing. It’s QC’s unofficial slogan across its global portfolio of 12 day spas and seven resorts. The hospitality chain chose this location — exceptional in so many ways — to make a splash with its debut in the United States. It will encompass about 100,000 square feet after the expansion is complete in September.
Andrea Quadrio Curzio, who has a mind for the business side of things, has noticed that New Yorkers are a little different from QC’s European spa customers.
“At the very beginning, they find it difficult not to perform,” Andrea said with a chuckle. “They come out of the changing room and ask, ‘So what do I have to do?’ ”
The whimsical maze of relaxation rooms on the second floor of the spa’s new building is designed to help with that. It includes a pungent lavender room that unsubtly alludes to the South of France, a dark cave-like room filled with waterbeds beneath an eight-minute video projected on the ceiling, and a cocoon room featuring seats swinging from the ceiling and butterfly-bedecked wallpaper by renowned Brooklyn designer Schumacher. All this can be yours for the day for $158.
“We wanted to arrange something that is always unexpected and pleasant and gratifying,” Andrea said. “You can forget that you have to go back and pay the rent.
“It’s not a race, it’s not a challenge. There’s nothing to achieve. So just relax.”
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the name of the spa’s chief design officer.
Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commericalobserver.com.
