RETURN TO OFFICE — GAETANO PESCE
The 39th Floor Revisited
An exhibition presented by Sweeterfat in collaboration with WSA NYC
October 14 – 28, 2025
180 Maiden Lane, Floor 39 — New York, NY 10038
Daily, 12–6 PM
Thirty Years Later — A Return to the Same Floor
In 1994, Italian radical designer Gaetano Pesce transformed the 39th floor of 180 Maiden Lane into a brightly colored, resin-filled landscape for the advertising agency TBWA/Chiat/Day. His vision turned the office into a work of art and a living organism of color and motion.
Return To Office reunites the pieces from the office on the exact floor where they first stood — marking one of the largest recent Pesce retrospectives in New York. Presented by Sweeterfat and WSA NYC, the exhibition revives a chapter of design history that continues to shape how workspaces look and feel today.
Exhibition Details
180 Maiden Lane · 39th Floor · New York City
Open daily 12–6 PM
Scale: 50+ types of works · 125+ examples
View history & works →
— Jay Chiat
Watch: Archival Footage of Gaetano Pesce’s 1994 TBWA/Chiat/Day Office
Filmed for “Objets de Histoire,” re-presented by Sweeterfat
Archival footage documenting Gaetano Pesce’s 1994 design for the TBWA/Chiat/Day office at 180 Maiden Lane (NYC).
Work as Play / Play as Work
Pesce’s office for Chiat/Day rejected corporate neutrality. A firemen’s pole to get between floors, chairs that purposefully wobbled, and your occasional hopscotch court on the floor made the environment so notable that the agency began arranging daily tours for people off the streets of NYC. Three decades later, these objects return as living archives — reframing today’s debate around creativity, labor, and the so-called ‘return to office’ in a post-pandemic world.
The exhibition features over 50 types of works and 125+ unique examples by Gaetano Pesce, including doors, chairs, cabinets and other prototypes built in 1994 for the original NYC headquarters.
Highlights from the Exhibition:
RETURN TO OFFICE — THE EXHIBITION
October 14 – 28, 2025Venue: 180 Maiden Lane, Floor 39 — New York, NY 10038
Hours: Daily, 12–6 PM
View the full Sweeterfat Collection →
hello@sweeterfat.com · Brooklyn, NY