Hernández-Eli Architecture designs Casa Cruz in collaboration with restaurateur Santa Cruz

Manhattan, NY The design firm Hernandez-Eli Architecture has debuted its work in collaboration with restaurateur, designer and entrepreneur Juan Santa Cruz for one of New York City’s most elegant and unforgettable dining destinations, Casa Cruz. With its art collection and growing reputation as a haven for creatives, the restaurant-club hosted Fashion Week events with top designers like Sandra Choi and David Yurman.

Known for refined and glamorous experiences in a hotspot with 99 six-figure investor partners, Casa Cruz offers curated, often exotic dishes in its magnetic location in an Upper East Side townhouse. Expanding its offerings in recent months, Casa Cruz has launched new lunch menus.

A breakout project for Hernandez-Eli Architecture, or HE — a firm better known for its learning environments, innovative residences, museum public realm works, and affordable housing designs — Casa Cruz reflects the close collaboration between the visionary owner Santa Cruz and the meticulous, craft-oriented practice led by HE’s founder and principal, Juliet Hernandez-Eli, the architect and designer.

“Their new menus offer a natural extension of the venue’s sophisticated material palette and décor, with handcrafted metals, custom de Gournay wallpapers, and original artworks by Keith Haring, Fernando Botero, and Louise Giovanelli,” said Hernandez-El. “Craft and artisanship are privileged first and foremost in both circulation and programmed spaces.”

Vogue calls it “New York’s most glamorous” restaurant, and just last month Tripadvisor extolled its “exquisitely designed” interiors. A follow-up to what AD called the “buzzy” Casa Cruz pop-up that rocked New York a decade ago, Casa Cruz Restaurant & Club spans all six stories of its 12,000 s/f Beaux-Arts townhouse on 61^st St. near Madison Ave. Entirely gut-renovated to build a two-story restaurant, a bar, a fourth-floor lounge for members only, and a fifth-floor private event venue, all interconnected by a curving “sculpture staircase.”

As The New York Times reported, guests find much “[t]o admire: the copper detailing, Brazilian cherry paneling, turntables with vintage LPs, Boteros, Warhols, fireplaces and walls upholstered in Casa Cruz green corduroy — the same propriety shade as the double crepe staff dresses by Emilia Wickstead,” the New Zealand fashion designer based in London.

Each floor and space offers a unique visual and tactile experience, making them as diverse as their menus and programs, adds Hernández-Eli, who has also created university lounges and pantries for clients such as the New York Institute of Technology. She points to the hammered-copper members bar, custom carved marble bathroom sinks, a sinuous lacquered stair railing, as well as bespoke copper door handles and the sculptural custom banquettes, bars, and gantries. 

“A copper-inlaid marble compass rose adorns the lobby floor and points due north,” said Hernandez-Eli. “Fluted curved door handles are mounted on high-polish copper backplates, designed to reflect the handle geometry and provide the illusion that the handles continue on both sides. The design of our curved copper walls carefully reflect and focus lighting inward, enveloping patrons in a warm glow.”