The History of the Dazzling Red Room at Printemps

Printemps, the long-awaited French luxury retail experience (and it truly is an experience) is now open at One Wall Street. While the entire store is designed to be a feast for the senses —  with whimsical sculptures, colorful lamps, plush couches, bright floral wallpaper, an onsite spa, multiple bars and restaurants and oh, yeah, gorgeous apparel that’s art unto itself — there’s something genuinely awe-inspiring about the Red Room, once the building’s official entrance and now home to Printemps’ high-end shoe collection.

The Art Deco room was previously closed to the public for decades, but now visitors to Printemps can now delight in its magic. From floor to ceiling, the room is covered in red, orange and gold tiles, which were pre-fabricated in Germany. Each individual piece was stamped so that the installers, the Ravenna Mosaic Company, could assemble it according to the design. At eye level, the tiles are a deep oxblood red; they get lighter as they get closer to the 33-foot-high ceiling. The pattern is designed to mimic the arched stone facades of One Wall Street, one of the earliest Art Deco skyscrapers in New York City. 

The Red Room was designed by artist Hildreth Meière, who was one of the most prominent muralists of her time. The Red Room was one of Meière’s only abstract designs. She created the space for Irving Trust Bank, which wanted to have “an inviting and friendly” reception area for clients, completed in 1931. Meière created additional mosaics in the main lobby of the building, though they were removed before the current owners purchased it in 2014. 

This was the first collaborative project that Meière worked on with architect Ralph Walker. They continued to work together for three decades, with notable projects including the ATT Long Distance Building at 32 6th Ave. as well as the Prudential Plaza lobby in Newark and the Travelers Insurance Company lobby in Hartford. Speaking about working with Meière, Walker said in 1941:

“I’d much prefer to work with Miss Meière than with any artist I know. She will take any commission you give her and work it out without any help from you — clean quality, good draftsmanship, material intelligently used. Once the job is in her hands you can forget about it, assured that it will be done right and done on time.”

Meière worked in a variety of mediums, including silver leaf, building tile, stained glass and colored plaster, notably designing a series of relief sculptures on the exterior of Radio City Music Hall on 50th St. as well as mosaic glass for the eight-story arch of the main sanctuary at Temple Emanu-El and a marble altar piece at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. She was the first woman appointed to the New York City Art Commission. 

In 2024, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated One Wall’s  1931-completed spaces by Miére and Walker, including the Red Room, historic landmarks. 

In advance of Printemps taking over the space, the room was restored to the tune of just over a million dollars. Part of the intervention involved restoring the iconic murals using newly discovered surplus original tiles. However, Printemps also added its own creative touch: large sculptural lamps designed to look like flowers bloom over the displays of shoes and lounge areas that now occupy the space. 

In addition to revamping the historic Red Room as a retail space, Printemps is also paying homage to Art Deco splendor with the Red Room Bar, an opulent cocktail lounge adjacent to the Red Room. If you ask us, it’s the perfect spot for your next date night — where you can share all these fun facts about the history one room over.