Lore, Othership, Schwet, SAA, Bathhouse, Akari—these are just a few boutique schvitzing spots that opened in New York City these past few years. Flatiron and Williamsburg are now wellness clusters, with multiple dedicated bathhouses within walking distance to one another. They compete over discerning clientele, prompting Marisa Meltzer in Vanity Fair to recently say New York is in the midst of “sauna wars.”
Now, the U.S. division of Therme Group, a self-described global wellness leader, has built a temporary sauna pop-up in Williamsburg’s Domino Park, not far from SAA, Akari, and Bathhouse Williamsburg. “Bathing culture is moving really quickly,” Therme Group U.S. president Robert Hammond told AN. “We wanted to create a platform to promote that culture outside of our Therme brand.”
The festival opened on February 12 and runs through March 1. Visitors begin their social wellness journey at a concierge desk inside the ground floor of One Domino Square, a new residential tower by Selldorf Architects. There, they enter locker rooms, get changed into bathing suits, and scurry across the street in robes to begin their sauna experience.
The Culture of Bathe-ing
Hammond struck a deal with Two Trees, the real estate company that operates Domino Park, to stage the Culture of Bathe-ing event there. He worked closely with Rintala Eggertsson Architects, a Norwegian office, on the main, custom-built social sauna.
Pioneer Works was also a partner on the project. Therme Group U.S. handled everything sauna-related, while Pioneer Works curated the artist performances, talks, and DJ sets.
Aufguss
Rintala Eggertsson Architects, founded by Dagur Eggertsson and Sami Rintala, designed the main sauna, a wooden structure painted black that offers stunning views of the East River, and the skyline beyond. Its winged profile is shaped like a butterfly—or maybe a bat? Aufguss, an ancient steam ritual, happens there.
The 15 architecturally unique pavilions also include more productized offerings in a variety of sizes. There is a utilitarian, wooden barrel structure on wheels, and a number of sleeker versions with full glass windows. An Airstream trailer and a shipping container were also retrofitted to be able to support hot humid interiors.
The whole ensemble came together in just three months, Hammond said. Rintala left Oslo and moved to New York so he could build the installation by hand, battling the chilling winds that swept in from the East River.
Rintala spent three weeks in New York City fabricating the sauna out of a workshop in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which he affirmed is typical for the practice. Studio Matter principal Erin Pellegrino was pivotal in the planning process, as was Justin Tucker, a local carpenter. Pellegrino advised Rintala on timber quotes and suppliers. “We started immediately after a snow storm,” Rintala told AN. “We shoveled the site in one day so we could start. We did all the painting and cutting in the workshop.”
One hour before the pop-up opened on February 12, Rintala and his team took a schvitz there, a nice reward for any architect after all that hard work. Eggertsson described the sauna as a “peculiar form.” Heat rises, so in section the structure is “a triangle turned upside down.” Eggertsson also didn’t shy away from the pavilion’s likeness to the animal kingdom. “We are finally happy with a design once it resembles an animal,” he said jovially. Rintala said he has had working relationship with Hammond for the past four years.
Previously, Hammond served as the executive director of Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit that manages the linear park designed by Field Operations and DS+R. He had been a part of the High Line project from the beginning: He started in 1999 and spent two decades with the nonprofit. There he also cooked up temporary happenings like a roller skating rink, which informed his approach for Therme.
“We did a two-day pop up in D.C. in October,” Hammond noted. “It was so popular, we said, ‘Let’s try to do it in New York.’ We went to Two Trees, and the guy who manages Domino Park used to work for the High Line, so I had a connection with him. The first person I called was Sami,” he elaborated, “because of what he had built at Salt,” a series of wood-framed installations in the early 2010s.
Big Business
Today, the wellness industry is valued at $6 trillion, or 6 percent of global GDP—the sector is so explosive, even Taco Bell’s trying to get into the action. The global wellness industry is expected to grow to almost $10 trillion by 2029.
Therme’s current flagship is a spa in Bucharest, Romania, and is now expanding in North America. Hammond is steering two projects underway by Therme: One is in Dallas, and the other is in Washington, D.C. on the Anacostia River.
Therme has also brokered a controversial agreement with the Ontario government to acquire land in Toronto where it will build a new facility dubbed Therme Ontario.
No plans are in place yet for a permanent sauna in New York operated by Therme, however the company runs a Substack where enthusiasts can access things like a Google Maps repository of every sauna in the tri-state area, updated by Hammond himself.
As global anxiety about the future of the planet continues to boil over, sauna culture is one way that people get together to sweat it out and reconnect with their bodies and each other.
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