How quickly they grow up. No sooner had James and Hayes Slade sprung from the chrysalis of their Emerging Voices lecture than they spread their wings at one of the city’s toniest design-and-dining events. Joining the likes of David Rockwell and Vicente Wolf, not to mention Cindy Crawford and Ralph Lauren, Slade Architecture debuted their variegated talent with a tape-covered dining room at DIFFA’s Dining By Design gala.

“Everything we do we want to do the best we can,” said Hayes. But when they received the invitation to participate with only ten days to spare, the best they could do was … trash.

“We love all of the energy and creativity that doing an installation brings, but we hate all the waste,” Hayes explained. She went to neighborhood building supers and begged for their castoff furniture, then placed a quick order on tapebrothers.com, eliciting a concerned phone call from a customer service representative (“Um, ma’am, what are you doing with this?”). James petitioned his Pratt students for help, and the team covered the reclaimed furniture and one-of-a-kind rug with a pastiche of tape—everything from electrical and duct to professional gaffer’s and safety-striped. The result is a table fit for the Mad Hatter himself (that is, if he can spare the dinner’s $10,000 price tag). We can’t wait to see what the dynamic duo serves up next.