At a multimillion-dollar wedding, security turnstiles can be a mood killer, even if the turnstiles in question are as sleek and new as the building they guard. The Refinery at Domino, on the Williamsburg waterfront, is designed for the workday, for tenants that sell squeeze bottles of olive oil and AI rendering software. But even the abstract art that guests pass on the walk to the elevators — and the elevators themselves — can feel off for a wedding upstairs, in the barrel-vaulted Skylight ballroom. At least that’s how it felt to Elizabeth Hall on a walk-through of the space for a $2.1 million wedding she was planning. So she tapped event designer Josh Birch, who hid the lobby art behind a fabric panel; covered the turnstiles with a custom check-in table; and outfitted the elevator with vinyl paneling and patterned carpet. “It did not look like an elevator; it looked like a room,” says Birch, who has recently thrown so many parties in office buildings that he could hardly remember this particular treatment.
The office wedding in New York isn’t new, but it’s having a moment. Domino’s so-called “Skylight at the Refinery” rents for $100,000, and that’s just for the space alone — it costs the same to take over the entire Frick mansion. Hall’s clients chose Domino over the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its rentable Temple of Dendur. “It’s on a popular streak right now,” she says. At SL Green’s One Madison, an office tower that includes IBM’s new flagship, a rooftop tenant lounge that transforms into the venue Le Jardin Sur Madison will also set you back $100,000. It’s been so successful that last year, the developer opened an even sleeker space at One Vanderbilt on the 72nd floor (the midtown office tower is already home to the Summit observatory). These venues atop Class-A office buildings are now competing with a much older generation of office venues, including the Rainbow Room. But they can feel traditional and expected — exactly what many couples these days do not want.
