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Obsidian: A New Vision for Living

Leyden Lewis

Leyden Lewis Design Studio is a Brooklyn-based firm that over the last thirty years has created poetic and culturally sensitive spaces and furniture in the United States and around the world.

Founder and Creative Director Leyden Lewis is a trained architect with a background which encompasses the culturally rich Caribbean heritage of Trinidad and Tobago, urban sophistication, and classical European Modernism. Leyden Lewis Design Studio has been included in the Elle Decor’s A-List top 125 designers in the world in 2019 and 2020, as well as features in Architectural Digest by Carly Olson, New York Magazine -The Cut by Wendy Goodman, a TV feature on Open House TV on NBC, House Beautiful by Hadley Keller.

As a fine artist, his work has been exhibited widely and has received much acclaim, in 2004, Leyden Lewis was invited by the curator Thelma Golden to participate in the Harlem world: Metropolis and Metaphor show at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Critic Herbert Muschamp referred to Lewis's work as "the poetic heart" of the exhibition. When it is desirable, Leyden Lewis Design Studio assists and consults with building art collections for clients.

Nina Cooke John

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Nina has always been inspired by the creativity she witnessed in her homeland: the art of people transforming everyday limitations into innovative solutions. She imbues this spirit of innovation into every design project.

Nina’s work has also been featured in Architectural Record, Madame Architect, on NBC’s Open House New York, in Dwell magazine’s “13 Extraordinary Women in Design and Architecture You Need to Know” and the Center for Architecture’s 2018 exhibition, Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture. Nina is one of five finalists selected to design the new Harriet Tubman Monument in Newark and is a part of the Elle Décor A-List 2021.

Working at the scale of the human body; individually or collectively, in the home or on the street, responding to how we use space in our everyday lives, whether in the family unit or as a community. Studio Cooke John was recently selected to design the Flatiron Public Plaza Installation for 2020. The public art installation was on view from November through January 1, 2021. 

Nina earned her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and a Masters in Architecture from Columbia University. She now teaches at Parsons School of Design, and Columbia University.

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