About

Fontana Studio

As an ongoing and developing process, Joseph Fontana embraces innovative technology through hardware as well as software.  This pure and simple method of operation allows him to design, produce, problem solve and execute for some of New York’s leading design firms commissioned on substantially
high-profile projects.  The end result of this collaboration is a global design portfolio in excess of $1.2 billion dollars and occupying over 9,778,765 square feet.  The scope of installations range from restaurant, residence, retail, bar, broadcast, kitchen, bath, furniture & lighting design to architectural sculptures exceeding a half million-dollars for a single piece of art.

Joseph’s unique approach is best exhibited with his
first corporate position as “Designer, Store Design, Worldwide” for Estëe Lauder.  Before he was an employee at their headquarters in New York City,
the length of time to complete an “in house store request” by hand was approximately four days.  Under his recommendation and supervision, the company had purchased new CADD workstations along with cutting edge 3D production software.
The result was a 94% reduction
in production time bringing the
thirty-two hour requirement
down to just under
two hours.

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In his three years with the company, Joseph had designed and produced construction documents along with maintained the correspondence throughout production in over eighteen countries; a total of two hundred twelve Aramis retail stores worldwide.

Perfecting his methodology was again brought to new levels with his first architectural design solution for Steve Wynn’s Bellagio Hotel.  Prime, a $6.7 million-dollar 170-person occupancy steakhouse developed with the renowned Interior Designer Michael de Santis.  Converting the entire office to a digitized department, he managed and produced all construction documents, maintained the system and CADD administration, including programming, DXF translations, data communications, diagnostic analysis, hardware / software installations and modifications.

Following the completion of Prime, Joseph refined the design details of nine Broadcast studios for CNN, (e.g., Anderson Cooper 360, Nancy Grace, Paula Zahn and American Morning) at the Time Warner Center in New York; a prototype studio for CNN International in Atlanta and sister studios in London & Hong Kong for Publicis Events. For Rockwell Group, he initiated the preliminary engineering and followed through with the implementation of the designs on several high-end architectural sculptures as well as developed the conceptual design of a $2.7 million-dollar Tree House bar for MGM at the Mirage CityCenter in Las Vegas. In the Swiss Alps, he developed initial concept designs for a forty thousand sq. ft. addition to a fifty thousand sq. ft. private residence designed by the office of Thierry W. Despont.

More recently, Joseph Fontana’s passion for design has evolved into the software solutions to communicate design intent. As a Revit Specialist, he was the lead Revit consultant orchestrating construction documents of 57 buildings for NYCHA HSCIP (New York City Housing Authority; Hurricane Sandy Capital Improvement) encompassing five developments; Astoria, Beach, Hammel, Oceanside and Redfern for Ronnette Riley Architect.  For DeSimone Consulting Engineers, Joseph created virtual structural models within “Revit Structure” for architectural firms, (e.g., Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates.)

Currently, Joseph is developing several lighting and furniture lines
along with various sculptured works.