As developer Aby Rosen is set to remake the Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson-designed Four Seasons Restaurant space in Manhattan’s Seagram Building, ongoing controversy surrounds the conservation of the architecture and design. The latest news came last month when auction house Wright announced plans to auction the furniture (designed by Mies and Johnson) at public auction on July 26. In response, Phyllis Lambert, the client and driving force behind the original 1959 building, wrote an open letter to Rosen published here on the Architect’s Newspaper.

Sources tell AN that Rosen’s negotiations to buy the furniture from Four Seasons owners Julian Niccolini and Alex von Bidder fell through earlier this year, prompting the duo to auction them. Rosen now says that he has reordered the same furniture from Knoll. The contract would cost too much to break, Rosen claims.

So according to Rosen, the restaurant, which will be run by the folks behind Carbone and Dirty French, will indeed have the Mies and Johnson furniture. It is a great pity that the furniture made for the Four Seasons under Mies and Philip’s supervision will not continue in place. Details are unclear, but the reorder would be a small victory for preservationists and a sign that maybe Rosen’s major blunders ended with the Picasso curtain that was removed in 2014.