Jordy Virguetti, 30

Jordy Virguetti straddles the new and old. Nowhere is that dichotomy more apparent than at the Empire State Building, an icon of Art Deco architecture dating back to the 1930s. Virguetti and his team were tasked with updating some of the empty floors at the 102-story building in a bid to lure tenants away from new construction.

The team took “the historic facade as inspiration to create modern interiors,” Virguetti explained.

Throughout the new floor plans, the team used stainless steel to pay homage to the building’s exterior and installed red furniture and carpets as a nod to the windows’ exterior rims. Now the team is busy coming up with designs to combine the 78th and 79th floors into one luxury office. 

Virguetti is looking to the future, too, and has joined Fogarty Finger Architecture’s artificial intelligence task force to see how the new technology could be utilized. While the committee has yet to make any major decisions, Virguetti is optimistic about AI. 

“It’s going to make everyone’s job easier,” Virguetti said. “It’s another tool that we need to learn how to use, which will allow us to be more creative, similar to how in the past we had [manual] drafts and now we have computers.”

Virguetti remains passionate about artisanal, handcrafted goods, though. During the pandemic, the designer drew up a Brutalist-style chess set that took inspiration from Bolivia, where both of Virguetti’s parents are from. In 2022, he took those drawings and turned them into reality, founding Terra Forms Studio, the retail vehicle for the handmade chess sets, which cost $385 each. So far, he’s sold about 100.

“That’s been like a passion project of mine, where I combine my interests in product design and marry that with my Bolivian heritage,” Virguetti said.