Collection ID: KA.0114.01

Collection context

Summary

Creator:
Skriloff, Allan
Abstract:
The collection consists of art and design work executed by furniture and interior designer Allan Skriloff during his studies in Parsons School of Design's Interior Design Department.
Extent:
1.5 Cubic Feet and 1 oversize box, 5 oversize folders
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], [date (if known)], Allan Skriloff student work, KA.0114, box __, folder __, New School Archives and Special Collections, The New School, New York, New York.

Background

Scope and Content:

The collection consists of art and design work created by Allan Skriloff during the course of his studies at Parsons School of Design's Interior Design Department from approximately 1963 until his graduation in 1966. The majority of the work is undated. Materials have been arranged in alphabetical order by format, and include a collage, presentation boards for design problems, life drawing sketches, a notebook, and renderings.

Design problems consist of a child's room, a city apartment, and a restaurant complex. According to Skriloff, the instructor gave the same blueprint to all students. A visit to the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado influenced Skriloff's design for the restaurant complex.

Skriloff executed the two life drawings during an Art Students League class. While studying at the Pratt Institute, he had been advised to improve his drawing skills.

The notebook primarily consists of tracings of furniture, architectural elements, elevations, and floor plans interspersed with handwritten notes. Originally bound into one notebook, it was separated into three sections during processing, although the original page order has been retained.

Renderings, primarily executed in watercolor, depict furnishings, elevations, and perspectives of historic rooms. Many feature comments by an undidentified instructor. Skriloff created the sketch executed in felt tip pen after graduating from Parsons School of Design; it depicts his first apartment at 125 West 96th Street, which he advises rented for $98.40 monthly in 1966.

Biographical / Historical:

Allan Skriloff was born in 1944 and grew up in Forest Hills, New York. He attended Dwight Academy in New York, graduating in 1962. Following high school, he studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and at Parsons School of Design. He graduated from Parsons' Interior Design Department in 1966. During this time, Skriloff also took summer classes at the Art Students League, a practice he continued for approximately a decade.

Skriloff first found professional employment with Zimmer Design Associates and later joined Philip Bruce, Inc., where he designed furniture. Beginning in 1968, Skriloff bought a series of brownstone buildings on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and renovated them. He had earlier apprenticed with an uncle who renovated buildings and thus had gained construction skills outside of an academic environment. In 1974, Skriloff began managing Pottery Barn stores in New Jersey, designing and renovating four facilities. He then became a freelance designer and moved to Woodstock, New York, where he continued to build and renovate.

Although semi-retired, Skriloff established a design consulting firm, Interior Analysis, in 2008 with the purpose of aiding prospective home buyers and real estate agents to optimize space in residential interiors. Additionally, Skriloff has exhibited artwork at Manhattan College, General Electric headquarters, the Woodstock Art Association, and OK Harris gallery in Soho.

Acquisition information:
Donated by Allan Skriloff, 2010.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access

RESTRICTIONS:

Collection is open for research use. Please contact archivist@newschool.edu for appointment.

TERMS OF ACCESS:

To publish images of material from this collection, permission must be obtained in writing from the New School Archives. Please contact: archivist@newschool.edu.

PREFERRED CITATION:

[Identification of item], [date (if known)], Allan Skriloff student work, KA.0114, box __, folder __, New School Archives and Special Collections, The New School, New York, New York.

LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
66 Fifth Avenue
Room N102
New York, NY 10011, United States
CONTACT:
archivist@newschool.edu