Steinway Hall sparkles anew as the new US headquarters for Bonhams

(Image credit: Colin Miller, courtesy Bonhams)

When Steinway & Sons built its headquarters on New York's West 57th Street in 1925, the legendary piano maker did not wish to open a mere showroom. Alongside retail sales, offices, practice studios and storage, the building served as a public stage, drawing musicians and composers together and hosting recitals in its storied performance hall. Designed by Warren & Wetmore, the architects of Grand Central Terminal, Steinway Hall took the form of a limestone palazzo, its classically ordered façade projecting both civic gravitas and commercial ambition. A century later, that same dual purpose—and the landmarked structure itself—has found a contemporary heir.

This winter, Bonhams US opens its new flagship, which spans Steinway Hall and purpose-built space created during the development of the adjacent Steinway Tower, designed by SHoP Architects. The move brings the 230-year-old global auction house from its previous home on Madison Avenue to 57th Street’s cultural corridor—anchored by Carnegie Hall—and situates Bonhams within a lineage that has long linked performance, craftsmanship and public life.

The site itself is a study in contrasts. As part of the 84-story residential tower’s construction, JDS Development Group acquired the parcel immediately east of Steinway Hall, allowing a new, soaring, light-drenched atrium to be stitched directly into the historic structure, which JDS also restored. Bonhams occupies roughly 42,000 square feet across four levels, distributed between the landmarked building and the new construction beneath one of the tallest—and skinniest—residential towers in the world.

For Bonhams, the move answered a pressing need for space—but it also offered something more strategic. 'We wanted a cultural destination,' says managing director Lilly Chan, 'a place that blends the past, present, and future, and invites people in—whether they’re collectors or just passing by on the street.'

She adds, 'We’re proud to carry on this legacy.'

These hopes and desires translated into a three-part brief: the space had to function as a showroom for auctions and previews; as a public-facing venue with exhibitions and events; and as a headquarters where specialists, analysts, and other staff could work directly alongside objects. The flagship will stage hundreds of viewings and sales annually across more than 60 collecting categories—including fine art, jewellery and cars—requiring a choreography of fast turnarounds, adaptable lighting and seamless back-of-house logistics.

The task of resolving those demands fell to Gensler, with one of its design directors, Jason Carney, leading the interior project. Rather than smoothing over the site’s contradictions, the team leaned into them. 'The building itself is already a layering of New York history,' Carney explains. 'These dialogues between commerce and culture, between the rich heritage and a forward-looking future, set the stage for our approach—how we began weaving a complex programme into a complex and rich site.'

Visitors enter directly from the street into the atrium, an 80-foot-tall volume fronted entirely in glass. From here, the restored rotunda—an ornate, landmarked reception hall, with its hand-painted domed ceiling and marble and scagliola arches, entablature and columns—opens off the main space and can be used for both displays and events. A monumental stair rises through the atrium, choreographing movement upward to the primary galleries above. Along the way, Gensler introduces a warm, contemporary palette—terrazzo and white oak floors and clean-lined ceilings—that deliberately steps back from the ornament of the historic fabric.

One of the project’s most distinctive elements is the sculpted central spine: a massive structural core descending from the tower above that the Gensler team wrapped in ribbed glass-fiber-reinforced gypsum. Subtly echoing the drapery and theatricality of the rotunda, it becomes both a visual anchor and connective tissue. 'It’s a reference—a nod to performance rather than a literal gesture,' Carney notes. What might have been a liability—the challenge of working around a hulking concrete shear wall—became an opportunity the team embraced.

The elegantly minimal galleries offer a calibrated range of spatial and lighting conditions—from a triple-height auction room washed in north light to a more intimate, fully controlled gallery above the rotunda. Beyond the exhibition areas, the project also accommodates Bonhams’ New York workforce with facilities ranging from warehousing, cataloguing and photography studios to client meeting spaces and a boardroom overlooking the atrium. Exposed masonry, revealed steel trusses, offset display walls and suspended linear track lighting make the building’s history legible while providing curators with maximum flexibility.

For Chan, that balance is the project’s greatest success. 'Commerce doesn’t have to be just commerce,' she says. 'It can be blended with culture. We want people to look in, come inside and feel part of the community.'

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The former managing editor of Architectural Record and The New York Observer, Beth Broome writes about architecture, design, urbanism, and culture. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.