Eric Clough (born September 7, 1972) is an American architectural designer.
Career and work
Eric was born in
Peoria, Illinois. He attended
Peoria Notre Dame High School
Peoria Notre Dame High School is a Catholic parochial high school in Peoria, Illinois. It is the largest school in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria with approximately 815 students. It has a college preparatory curriculum, and according to the ...
. Due to his father's international assignment, Clough spent his formative years in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
and
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
at the International School of Brussels and the American School of London. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis, followed by earning his Master of Architecture from
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
. Of his design sensibilities, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' said, "
lough'sideas about space and domestic living derive more from
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing mo ...
than Peter Marino."
Clough founded 212box, an architecture and design firm, in 2001. , they were based in Manhattan's
Financial District
A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...
with an office adjacent to the World Trade Center /
9/11 Memorial site. The multi-disciplinary firm specializes in architecture, real estate, product design, film and graphic design.
Among Clough's earliest projects was the GlassBox (1999), a construction that would expand billboards into livable, leasable spaces. By utilizing Transparent Imaging Matrix technology on the floors and walls, the GlassBox was a dynamic billboard for advertising and informational purposes, and its interior space could be used for office, residence, retail, or storage. It was intended to take maximum advantage of under-used space in dense urban areas, such as above paid parking lots in New York City.
212box's clients for architecture and interior design have included, in the residential sector,
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer.
Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...
and
Tatiana von Fürstenberg
Princess Tatiana Desirée von Fürstenberg (''Tatiana Desirée Prinzessin zu Fürstenberg''; born February 16, 1971) is an American art curator, singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and filmmaker.
Early life and family
Von Fürstenberg ...
, and in retail, shoe designer
Christian Louboutin
Christian Louboutin (; born 7 January 1963) is a French fashion designer whose high-end stiletto footwear incorporates shiny, red-lacquered soles that have become his signature. Initially a freelance designer for fashion houses, he started hi ...
. Clough spoke about his design work at the IDEA Conference in 2009.
Christian Louboutin
212box first designed boutiques for Christian Louboutin in 2004. In 2003, Clough was highly recommended to Louboutin by
Diane von Furstenberg
Diane may refer to:
People
*Diane (given name)
Film
* ''Diane'' (1929 film), a German silent film
* ''Diane'' (1956 film), a historical drama film starring Lana Turner
* ''Diane'' (2017 film), a mystery film directed by Michael Mongillo
* ''D ...
, inciting Louboutin to sign on with 212box almost immediately.
Since then, 212box has collaborated on nearly 50 Louboutin boutiques worldwide. By November 2011, locations included
Sydney,
Brasilia,
Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
,
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
,
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...
,
Ho Chi Minh City,
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
, and
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
.
For the
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
boutique, Clough took literally Louboutin's desire to create a "new language" for the store's design, aiming to counteract the sense of placelessness that shopping malls usually conjure by tapping into the human relationship with language and symbol. Clough covered the façade of the São Paulo store with more than 9,000 non-repeating wooden tiles containing letters from more than 28 world languages, as well as 400 symbols drawn by his twelve-year-old nephew. Since the opening of the São Paulo store, these character tiles, which would come to be called CodeBox tiles, have become a signature aspect of 212box's design in Louboutin stores.
The Dubai Mall
The Dubai Mall ( ar, دبي مول "Dubai Mall") is a shopping mall in Dubai. It is the second largest mall in the world after the Iran Mall by total land area, and the 26th-largest shopping mall in the world by gross leasable area, tying with ...
Louboutin store, which opened in July 2011, featured a wall of ceramic CodeBox tiles containing hidden poems. The
Ho Chi Minh City boutique (opened in Fall 2011) contains CodeBox tiles of both wood and ceramic, and further language tiles made of backlit brass and etched with poetry by native Vietnamese poets.
[ As '']Interior Design
Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordi ...
'' notes, "a fondness for literature runs through the oeuvre of 212box."[
212box's Louboutin flagship store in ]Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
's Design District doubled as an art installation referencing the city's art culture. ''Wallpaper
Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so ...
'' described its exterior: "The outside wall planted with orchids, and inside multicoloured hosiery is strung up like an erotic spiderweb in an installation by artist Madeleine Berkhemer across the entrance hall. Here, one-way mirrors allow voyeurs to watch women try on the famous red-soled shoes as they lounge on luxurious patchwork furniture by Bokja." The New York City showroom garnered praise for "achieving authenticity and charm through the use of salvaged and collected materials," including wrought-iron gates, antique furniture, and stained glass panels.
The "Mystery On Fifth Avenue" apartment
In 2004, Clough and 212box took on the renovation of a 4,200-square-foot, 1920s co-op with views of Central Park, originally owned by Marjorie Merriweather Post
Marjorie Merriweather Post (March 15, 1887 – September 12, 1973) was an American businesswoman, socialite, and philanthropist. She was also the owner of General Foods Corporation.
Post used much of her fortune to collect art, particularly I ...
and E.F. Hutton
EF Hutton was an American brokerage firm, stock brokerage firm founded in 1904 by Edward Francis Hutton and his brother, Franklyn Laws Hutton. Later, it was led by well known Wall Street trader Gerald M. Loeb. Under their leadership, EF Hutton b ...
. The new-owners, Maureen Sherry and Steven Klinsky, are Wall Street financial experts and purchased the apartment in 2003 for $8.5 million. They hired Clough to renovate, and as a surprise for the family's four young children, he built into the apartment an elaborate "scavenger hunt" comprising 18 clues implanted into the fabric of the rooms. The puzzles involve ciphers and riddles to secret compartments, a narrative tracing inspiration through 40 historical figures, and a soundtrack featuring original music by Canadian folk musicians Kate Fenner and Chris Brown.[ ]J. J. Abrams
Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as '' Regarding Henry'' (1991), '' F ...
paid six figures for the film rights to a ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' article about the apartment entitled " Mystery on Fifth Avenue."
After Abrams bought the rights to the article, Clough left him a response in the form of an encrypted message, which was meant to be pointed out to Abrams via another ''The New York Times'' article, "Monumentally Mystifying: Power of Secrets Inspires Public Art".
Personal life
Clough is married to Canadian folk singer Kate Fenner[ and has one son ]
References
External links
212box official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clough, Eric
1972 births
Living people
People from Peoria, Illinois
20th-century American architects
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts alumni
Yale School of Architecture alumni
21st-century American architects