Depth of Field
Interview with Stephanie Goto
Words by Spencer Bailey
Like architecture, Stephanie Goto’s influences unfold from every angle, but at the core they are all connected by a respect for craftsmanship that runs deep.
For Stephanie Goto, work isn’t simply a job or a practice. It’s even more than a calling. It’s a lens: an all-encompassing way of seeing, feeling, sensing, and experiencing the world.
Since founding her New York City-based firm in 2004, the architect has become, slowly and methodically, highly sought after, widely known for her ethereal, rigorous, detail-driven designs that position materiality, light and shadow, and the senses at the fore. In her hands, architecture reaches the level of art.
Perhaps not surprisingly, her longest-running, most engaged client is Alexander “Sandy” Rower, the grandson of the artist Alexander Calder and the president of the Calder Foundation, who has hired her to execute multiple projects around the world, including for the foundation’s New York City Project Space, a Hauser & Wirth exhibition in Los Angeles, and a Tokyo show with Pace Gallery. Naturally, Goto thrives in the realms of hospitality and residential design, too, with projects such as the restaurant Jean-Georges at the Shinmonzen in Kyoto and the home kitchen of her dear friend the celebrity chef Daniel Boulud, for whom she also later designed the Boulud Sur Mer dining concept at his Upper East Side restaurant Daniel in 2020. From her firm’s Union Square penthouse studio—an intimate, exquisitely appointed space that, fittingly, includes a kitchen and dining room and could truly be described as a jewel box—Goto reflects on her hybrid American-Japanese perspective, her enduring love of New York, and many of the things that make her tick, from champagne to fast cars.
Spencer Bailey: You grew up between New York City and Tokyo. Tell me about how your upbringing shaped your way of thinking about and looking at the world.
Stephanie Goto: I’m an assemblage of both cultures. In my work, I communicate the subtleties that are so often missed and bring Japan to America and also bring my Americanness back to Japan. Also, as a student, I lived in Rome and Paris, and I traveled a lot in Europe. Travel has given me this other layer—this ability to see things through different cultures. In that light, I feel like I’m a citizen of the world.
“With Theory, the clothes are not making you—you are making the clothes.”
Bailey: From your childhood to now, what does New York mean to you?
Goto: At the end of the day, New York is my heart-center. No matter how it changes or goes through these ups and downs, I feel most comfortable here. There are so many places in the city that bring back memories, like the World Trade Center, which was such an early iconic reference point of the city for me. Or Paley Park—you drive by it, and if you haven’t seen it in a while, it takes your breath away. Or Carnegie Hall, that beautiful acoustical room, all the concerts I’ve seen there. I also have this deep familial connection to the city: My paternal grandfather lived here, attended Columbia University, and worked on Wall Street for seven years in the late 1920s and early ’30s. This was the inspiration for my father to follow in his footsteps. As much as I love Japan—and I’ve been spending multiple months there every year—I just feel very New York.
Bailey: What are your favorite Japanese spaces in New York?
Goto: The most incredible one is the Noguchi Museum [in Long Island City, Queens]. I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Isamu Noguchi’s work well over the past decade. He’s this incredible bridge between the two cultures, Japan and America.
Bailey: What’s your most “New York” place in Tokyo?
Goto: There are so many, and there also are so few. I lived there for a bit last year when creating the exhibition design for “Calder: Un effet du japonais” in Azabudai Hills, and I really felt like a New Yorker in Tokyo.
Bailey: When did you know you wanted to become an architect?
Goto: When I was like 11 or 12. I was really interested in how to sculpt space, moving my furniture around in my bedroom. My art history thesis in high school was about Frank Lloyd Wright. I went to see all of his buildings in Oak Park, including the Unity Temple. Architecture was just inside of me.
Bailey: Tell me about your early career, working with and for the likes of Rafael Viñoly, David Rockwell, and Tadao Ando. What were some of the foremost things you learned from them?
Goto: I worked with the late great Rafael Viñoly for six years at the beginning of my career. It was a dream. It was this huge, beautiful, bustling 24,000-square-foot warehouse turned into an architecture studio. It was a sort of graduate school. We would travel together, and I would go to look at new projects for him. We would stay up all night. I learned—very, very close up—what it took to do these extraordinary projects, and not just the architecture, but the business side of it, too. Then, afterward, I went to David Rockwell, who taught me all about hospitality. It was a brief moment, but it led me to meeting Stephen Starr and working with Tadao Ando on [the restaurant] Morimoto in New York, which was about the time when the High Line was being developed—the High Line actually ran over it. With Mr. Ando, I was running on all cylinders. My workday was practically 24 hours, because New York would close, and then Japan would open. He taught me so much: There’s this underlying spirit about his work. It doesn’t feel contrived. In working with him, I learned that it’s all about the little details. It’s all about the eighth of an inch. It’s all about considering each element very delicately.
Bailey: Only in New York would you get to work with that incredible trio of architects in one place.
Goto: It was organic how it happened. It was just this natural path.
Bailey: You decided to go solo in 2004. What propelled you to go out on your own?
Goto: When you’re young, you’re a bit fearless. But in my gut, I knew that I had a shot. I have this inner sense that lets me know when I can do something—I just go for it. Part of it had to do with working with Mr. Ando in this collaborative role here in New York. He was the bridge to my independence.
Bailey: Through your work with Rockwell and Ando, not to mention your love of food, architecture led you to restaurants. It’s interesting to me that architecture became a vessel toward your befriending many of today’s most important chefs. Post-Morimoto, what were some of your key early projects?
Goto: There were a few significant restaurant projects that I was able to do, especially [Paul Liebrandt’s] Corton and [George Mendez’s] Aldea. With both of those young chefs, I really felt this synergy. Design is now so much more about hospitality, but back then it wasn’t the tailored experience it is today.
Bailey: You have so many deep connections to food, as well as to champagne, and then to other creative realms beyond these. What does it mean to you to be hopping in and out of these worlds? I suppose one thing they all have in common is a deep reverence for craft.
Goto: It’s incredible that I’ve been able to use something I love to unlock all these opportunities and friendships. I’m always looking at everything through an architectural lens, and it seems to resonate with all these different people. There’s a high level of precision in what we all do. Take champagne, which is so architectural—how it feels in your mouth, the expression of how it changes when you first drink it to the end, the way it’s created, the way it’s blended. That’s the power of architecture: It doesn’t just have to be physical space. It can be a multisensory, ephemeral experience.
Bailey: I love that you create what I would describe as “slow architecture,” but you also, similar to the chef Massimo Bottura, love fast cars.
Goto: Yes! I love his book [Slow Food, Fast Cars, 2023]. It really resonates with me. I do these smaller, faster projects—the more experiential projects—and then longer built work. It’s a fantastic balance for me because it feeds these two different energies.
Bailey: How would you describe your own taste or personal style?
Goto: In my heart, I’m a minimalist, but I really like this tension between restraint and whimsy. I like diving into the holistic feeling of something, but then adding these little details that might be slightly unexpected. I’ve always admired Theory’s simple approach. There’s a very unpretentious yet elevated Japaneseness behind it. A thoughtfulness. Its pieces are foundational. It offers an incredible blank canvas that you can make your own. With Theory, the clothes are not making you—you are making the clothes. This allows you to shine and come to the forefront.
Bailey: I think we could say that your style is rigorous but playful at the same time.
Goto: Yes, I hope that’s what resonates!
Bailey: Do you have any life mantras? A word or a phrase, perhaps?
Goto: As simple as it may be, I think it would be authentic. Just being myself and nothing more is my superpower, taking ownership of that and using it to amplify whatever I’m trying to do—and not being distracted.
Photography: Su Müstecaplioğlu
Fashion: Ian Bradley
Fashion Assistant: Trey Hemmings
Hair Stylist: Sadah Saltzman
Makeup Artist: Azra Red at Exclusive Artists
Production: The Morrison Group