In the competitive landscape of New York City architecture and design, where countless firms vie for attention, Studio Panduro has quietly established itself as the choice for clients seeking something beyond the ordinary—spaces that spark curiosity, evoke timeless experiences, and offer what founder Ruso Panduro describes as “nuanced subtlety” and “unassuming elegance.”
This isn’t design that announces itself loudly. It’s design that whispers sophistication.
The Mind Behind the Studio
Ruso Panduro, a Peruvian-American architect and self-described citizen of the world, brings over two decades of rich architectural exploration to every project. Nestled in the vibrant heart of New York City, his studio represents the culmination of experiences spanning continents and collaborations with some of the most demanding clients in fashion, hospitality, and luxury retail.
His journey includes time at the renowned Picasso Museum in Malaga, Spain—an experience that deepened his understanding of how art and architecture converse. He developed an exclusive line of light fixtures and chandeliers for the French house of Swarovski while working as a partner at Groves & Co., demonstrating his ability to translate architectural vision into tangible objects of beauty. And he’s designed multiple homes for fashion icon Michael Kors throughout the United States, mastering the art of creating spaces that balance practicality with indulgence, comfort with rigor.
Throughout this diverse tapestry of experiences, one constant emerges: Panduro’s reverence for the elegance of nature. Whether crafting private residences, collaborating with hospitality luminaries like Andre Balazs and Ian Schrager on visionary hotel ventures, or designing flagship retail experiences for global luxury brands, his ethos of understated sophistication finds expression across every project.
Tiffany & Co. Shanghai: A Flagship That Dazzles at Every Scale
Studio Panduro’s mastery of retail experience design shines brilliantly in their work on Tiffany & Co.’s Shanghai flagship. Located on a prominent corner of the Hong Kong Plaza retail and commercial development on Huai Hai Road, this store represents a sophisticated dialogue between urban presence and intimate luxury.
The façade’s upper portion—a rectangular box housing the third through fifth floors—is wrapped with a reflective veneer of opaque glass and dotted with sparkling LED lights. This large-scale symbolism catches shoppers’ eyes from blocks away, establishing a recognizable presence in Shanghai’s bustling urban landscape. It’s architecture as beacon, announcing Tiffany’s presence in one of the world’s most dynamic retail markets.
But what distinguishes Panduro’s approach is the sophistication at street level. The lower portion of the façade provides a dramatic contrast to the electronic surface architecture above. Here, layered materials and sophisticated details create drama and excitement at the human scale—the moment where retail magic actually happens. An orthogonal tapestry of clear, bronze-fluted, and bronzed glass panels allow diffused glimpses into the world of Tiffany & Co., creating intrigue and invitation.
Inside the boutique, glass fluting, silver leaf, limed oak, and lacquer panels are exquisitely composed in a fresh interpretation of the brand’s rich history. Many interior surfaces, fabricated of various types of glass, were further enriched through innovative methods of traditional artisan techniques, such as églomisé, silver leaf, and glass etching. A graceful curving staircase of marble, wood, and bronze ascends through the space, encircling a crystal glass chandelier that serves as both functional lighting and sculptural centerpiece.
New and exciting display techniques highlight innovative ways to tantalize and excite the Tiffany customer, creating a more dynamic selling experience—all of which echo the brand’s rich craftsmanship and quality while ushering it into a fresh new era. It’s precisely what great retail design should accomplish: honoring heritage while feeling utterly contemporary.
Michael Kors Penthouse: The Epitome of Casual Formality
When internationally renowned fashion designer Michael Kors and his husband, Lance Le Pere, approached Studio Panduro (then working as Groves & Co.) for their sprawling New York City penthouse, it marked the fifth project the client and firm had completed together—a testament to the trust built through years of collaboration.
The brief was deceptively simple yet profoundly challenging: create “casual formality,” achieving “that tug-of-war between practicality and indulgence, comfort and rigor.” It’s the kind of paradox that lesser designers would find impossible to reconcile.
Panduro achieved it through the deft use of restrained detail and rich materials that provide the space with a lush, warm feel. Stepping off the elevator, guests enter a compact vestibule that immediately opens to an expansive entry hall, lined with iconic fashion photography, a rare Charlotte Perriand daybed upholstered in degradé charcoal linen, and Hermès leather side tables.
The master bedroom suite carries the penthouse’s overarching theme—not unlike a presidential suite in a modern luxe hotel. It’s replete with an intimate sitting room, library, and home gym. The master bath houses a monolithic marble tub centered on a large picture window, framing views of the West Village below and the Hudson River beyond.
A combination of clean and simple, yet opulent touches of warmth and texture was used throughout to achieve a high-flying yet down-to-earth style—one both luxurious and earthy. It’s pure Panduro: sophisticated without being stuffy, luxurious without being ostentatious.
1 Seaport: Reimagining New York’s Historic Waterfront
If the Kors penthouse showcases Panduro’s mastery of intimate luxury, his work on 1 Seaport demonstrates his ability to conceive experiences at an entirely different scale. Soaring above the water’s edge and overlooking New York Harbor, 1 Seaport is the first all-glass residential tower built in New York’s most historic neighborhood.
Water and sea inform every aspect of the design, from the façade’s subtly tinted glass to the overarching theme of the interiors. Arriving at 1 Seaport is consciously designed as a glamorous experience. From the stone and brass-detailed porte-cochère, a grandly scaled staircase leads to the second-floor piano nobile, enlivened by a sensational lighting installation composed of hundreds of glimmering, softly hued crystalline orbs.
This artistic intervention—rising and falling, swirling from dense clusters to sparser areas—serves both as dramatic sculpture and wayfinder. The sun-drenched lobby features a double-sided fireplace surrounded by book-matched marble and luxurious furnishings. The 24-hour concierge is chicly housed at an impressive solid marble desk, enveloped by glowing brass walls.
Within the residences, extravagantly high ceilings, walls of windows, and glass terraces celebrate the panoramic views of harbor and skyline. Each unit boasts hand-stained oak flooring, custom millwork, and select details that subtly allude to the site’s nautical heritage. European-influenced kitchens of rich walnut and inlaid Calacatta gold marble are integrated into the living spaces.
From the chandelier and exterior light box in the lobby to the floating pool and rain shower, the artistic interventions and cutting-edge engineering make 1 Seaport a truly glorious spectacle unlike any other in New York’s residential landscape.
The Studio Panduro Philosophy
What emerges across these projects—from Shanghai retail to New York penthouses—is a commitment to spaces that offer sanctuary. The team of passionate and diverse architects and interior designers believe that the essence of a finely wrought space lies in its nuanced subtlety, its unassuming elegance, offering environments where individuals can seamlessly harmonize with meticulously considered functionality.
This isn’t about creating Instagram moments or following design trends. It’s about fostering environments of mindful comfort and unparalleled refinement—spaces that work as beautifully as they look, that feel as good as they photograph, that improve with time rather than dating quickly.
Panduro’s reverence for nature’s elegance informs this philosophy. Even in the heart of Manhattan’s glass towers or Shanghai’s bustling retail corridors, there’s an organic quality to his work—materials chosen for their inherent beauty, proportions that feel instinctively right, lighting that mimics natural patterns, details that reward close observation.
A Global Practice with New York Roots
As a Peruvian-American architect who has worked across continents, Panduro brings a genuinely global perspective to his practice. His work spans from New York’s most prestigious addresses to Shanghai’s premier retail destinations, from European luxury collaborations to American hospitality projects. This international reach allows Studio Panduro to bring cross-cultural insights to every project—understanding how luxury translates differently in various markets while maintaining universal principles of beauty, proportion, and craft.
The Tiffany Shanghai flagship perfectly exemplifies this global fluency: respecting Chinese aesthetic sensibilities while honoring an iconic American brand’s heritage, creating drama appropriate to Shanghai’s scale while maintaining the intimacy that defines luxury retail.
Creating Timeless Experiences
In an era of viral design trends and Instagram-driven aesthetics, Studio Panduro’s commitment to timelessness feels almost radical. These are spaces designed to age gracefully, to accommodate changing needs and tastes, to provide the kind of understated backdrop that allows lives—and brands—to unfold naturally within them.
Whether designing a fashion mogul’s penthouse, New York’s first all-glass waterfront tower, or a flagship boutique for one of the world’s most iconic luxury brands, Ruso Panduro and his team create spaces that spark curiosity through subtle details, evoke timeless experiences through careful material selection, and offer sanctuary through the marriage of beauty and function.
For clients seeking architecture and design that whispers rather than shouts, that rewards long-term living rather than quick impressions, that balances sophistication with warmth—Studio Panduro represents design at its most refined.
Discover Studio Panduro’s approach to timeless architecture and interior design: Visit their profile on the Haute Design Network