Biography
The fashion industry regularly turns to Glenn Pushelberg and George Yabu for their interior design skills. The duo's past projects include New York’s Bergdorf Goodman, Hong Kong’s Lane Crawford, Paris’ Printemps, a number of salons for Louis Vuitton stores located across the globe, as well as locations for Carolina Herrera and David Yurman.
The pair have been partners in life and business for 30 years. They met at Canada’s Ryerson University. "We ended up helping each other with design and then meeting each others’ deadlines,” Yabu told BoF. “The synergy worked and our design philosophy and aesthetic were so dead-on similar that it made sense to join our businesses together.”
Their relationship emerged from their first major project together, designing Club Monaco’s first stores in Toronto. It wasn't until they were called on to revamp Bergdorf Goodman's flagship in New York, however, that the ball really began rolling. They have homes in Miami, Toronto and New York, with studios based in the latter two cities as well. The pair have six design teams, “compromised of design and project management personnel specialising in luxury design,” capable of taking on projects as diverse as the interior of a private airbus and flagship hotels.
The design duo has also diversified into product design and production, collaborating with Pampaloni on table wear, and producing furniture and other home wear. Pushelberg and Yabu have been inducted into Interior Design magazine’s hall of fame and awarded a Platinum Circle award.
In May 2019, Yabu Pushelberg completed the design of the New York Edition hotel, which is billed as Times Square's first design hotel and entertainment destination, including multiple restaurants, bars and a nightclub. In the same year, Yabu and Pushelberg also designed the 1,300-square-foot Goop pop-up store which opened June 7 in Toronto.