PRESS RELEASE- NEW GOERGETOWN SHOWROOM

BOFFI OPENS WASHINGTON, DC FLAGSHIP IN CADY’S ALLEY

AWARD-WINNING DESIGNER AND BOFFI DESIGN DIRECTOR PIERO LISSONI LAUNCHES SHOWROOM PREVIEW Lissoni Is Featured Lecturer in AIA | DC Architecture Week

Washington, DC-- Thursday, 16 September, Boffi Georgetown, the definitive resource for high modern kitchen, bath, and systems, celebrates its launch with design legend Piero Lissoni. Lissoni, who designed the 6000 square-foot Boffi Georgetown showroom in cooperation with the Boffi marketing department, will give a talk at 6:30 pm in a key AIA | DC Architecture Week event at 3307 M St., NW. A reception from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm will follow in the Boffi Georgetown showroom, located at 3320 M Street, NW in Cady’s Alley.  The $20 event registration fee and proceeds from Architecture Week in general benefit the Washington Architectural Foundation.  Event registration is available at www.aiadc.com

In the world of kitchen and bath design, the Italian-based Boffi sets trends and transforms design impulses that shape and influence the entire industry. Boffi Georgetown is one of the Boffi trade network shops located in Milan, Rome, Antwerp, Barcelona (June 2010), Berlin, Cannes, Cologne, Frankfurt, Lyon, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York (two shops), Oslo, Paris (two shops), and Zurich. “Washington, DC, stands with the world’s major cities and represents one of Boffi’s key markets,” says Roberto Gavazzi, Chief Executive Officer, Boffi S.p.A. “Opening a flagship showroom in Washington, DC reinforces the company’s growing international network and strength.”

The new showroom provides a valuable resource for greater Washington-area architects, designers, and clients.  Boffi Georgetown employs two in-house architects to collaborate with clients and specify projects.

About Piero Lissoni

Born in 1956, Lissoni, a prolific and influential designer of furniture, architecture, graphics, packaging, lighting, environments, interior design, and corporate identities, received his architecture degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Milan. In 1985 he began collaborating as designer and Art Director with Boffi, Living Divani, and Porro. He founded Lissoni Associati in Milan the following year, and in 1996 Graph.x, developing multi-faceted projects in all areas of design. His additional clients include Cappellini, Fritz Hansen, Alessi, Elie Tahari, Kartell, Matteograssi, Cassina, Flos, Glas, Kartell, Knoll International, Lema, Poltrona Frau,Tecno, Thonet , among others.

Lissoni’s work, characterized by unexpected dimensions and a mastery of proportion with a minimalist profile that quietly impacts its surroundings, reveals an esthetic informed by his observation of trends and impulses of the moment, a passion for the formal perfection of Japanese design, and the timeless classicism and bold shapes of such modernist masters as Mies van der Rohe, Eileen Gray, and Eero Saarinen. Lissoni’s many international awards over the last two decades include Interior Design Magazine’s “Hall of Fame” 2005, the “Good Design Award” 2007 from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, and “Designer of the Year 2007,” Elle Deco International Design Awards.

In addition to Boffi showrooms worldwide, recently realized projects include: a private loft in Monza, the Hotel Monaco & Grand Canal, Venice; the “Al Porto” Hotel, Lake Zurich; Istanbul; and the “Mitsui Garden” business Hotel, Tokyo, the interiors of the Shangri LaTM Hotel & Resort in Miami, the restoration of the Teatro Nazionale for the Dutch Multinational State Entertainment,  the 5 star Mamilla Hotel in Jerusalem, and, in Italy, the re-design of headquarters/factories for Boffi, Glas and Living Divani, Lema, Living Divani, Porro, and Tecno., projects underway include private villas, lofts, shops, and showrooms all over the world, an innovative design hotel in Amsterdam’s Museum Square district, and major suites for the Pierre Hotel New York and the Taj Palace Mumbai.

About Boffi

Founded in 1934 outside Milan by Piero Boffi, Boffi’s roots are grounded in the traditional techniques and careful workmanship of artisan carpentry. In the 1950s Piero’s sons Pierugo, Dino, and Paolo transformed the family company into an industrial company, melding Boffi’s creativity with advanced production and technology techniques. A leader in new Italian design, Dino launched collaborations with such modernist designers as Asti, Favre, and Casé.

Boffi has maintained its edge over the years through ongoing collaboration and experimentation with some of the world’s top designers and architects, including Antonio Citterio, Marcel Wanders, Claudio Silvestrin, Jeffrey Bernett, Marc Sadler, and the aforementioned Piero Lissoni.  In the late 1980s Boffi entered a new phase when Piero Lissoni and Roberto Gavazzi joined Paolo Boffi in company management. Advancing the company’s design culture, collaboration between the company and designers took on a holistic approach that embraced not only product but how that product was produced and distributed.

Boffi’s achievement’s under Lissoni and Gavazzi’s leadership include the creation of a complete bathroom concept, the launch of Boffi flagship stores in major cities worldwide, including By concept stores in partnership with Porro and Living Divani, and acquisition of norbert wangen, the German kitchen brand. In 2010 Boffi launched a new wardrobe sector and Aboutwater, a collaboration with Fantini. With the company’s ongoing artisan focus sustainability has defined Boffi from the outset. Boffi completed its ISO 14001 certification process in 2010.

The Boffi Georgetown showroom features Boffi’s wide range of exceptional kitchens as well as its revolutionary bath systems, and includes products ranging from kitchen storage units, door systems, and islands, to bathroom sinks, tubs, architectural system furniture, and high-tech fixtures.

The uniform anthracite grey façade of Boffi Georgetown’s showroom establishes the minimalist tone of the space. The palette continues in the open showroom with its anthracite grey interior walls and a textured slab floor made of wood fiber board and concrete. Transparency is a recurring theme in the space. At the center of the showroom a floating stairway crafted of concrete and glass leads to the second floor with its arched glass ceiling and open terrace. Expansive windows punctuate the space throughout. The live kitchen on the second floor will showcase in by-invitation dinners the talents of new and established visiting chefs from Washington’s outstanding restaurants.

Boffi Georgetown is located at 3320 M Street, NW in Cady’s Alley in Georgetown. Store hours during August are Monday to Friday, 10 am to 6 pm. Regular hours beginning September are Tuesday to Friday, 10 am to 6 pm; Saturdays 11am to 6 pm. Sunday/Monday closed. www.boffigeorgetown.com

AIA |DC Architecture Week 2010:  Come Learn How Architects See the World!  is a series of more than two dozen public events that celebrate architecture in the nation’s capital.  This is the 12th iteration of Architecture Week, with a special focus on something unique to Washington, DC; the presence of so many foreign embassies and institutions with interesting architectural heritages.   This is the public’s opportunity to see the best in Washington and world architecture through lectures, tours, programs, celebrations and much more.  All events are open to the public and many events are free, family-friendly and metro-accessible.  This year’s partners include more than a dozen embassies and cultural centers, as well as The National Building Museum, DC Magazine, 2000 Penn and Capital Pecha Kucha.   www.aiadc.com

The Washington Architectural Foundation promotes architects serving the community through programs that include:  teaching children about architecture through Architecture in the Schools, providing free design services to nonprofits through Community Design Services, and working to help end hunger through the CANstruction program. The Foundation leverages its modest budget and a cadre of architectural professionals volunteering their time and expertise to help a region-wide community.www.wafonline.org

www.boffigeorgetown.com