Have you ever seen a house cut in half? Austin Johnson, the Michelin-starred chef behind One White Street in Tribeca, might be the closest thing New York has to an expert on houses cut in half. In fact, hanging in the first floor dining room of the soon-to-open restaurant, there’s a photograph of one, a 1973 work by Gordon Matta-Clark, in which the late artist vertically bisected a two-story New Jersey home using nothing more than a handheld chainsaw. The incisions, which reportedly took more than three months, left the house standing.
The photograph is technically a negative of the original work, but it’s a testament to what it takes it to deconstruct a building from the inside out. Johnson would know. One White Street, named after its historic Tribeca address, has been in the works for more than two years, during which time owner Dustin Wilson, a former wine director of Eleven Madison Park, and Johnson, a former chef at the one-Michelin-star Frenchie in Paris, have been transforming a residential four-story townhouse into a three-story commercial restaurant and wine bar.