melissa cohen

Context was founded by Melissa Cohen and established in New York City in 1999. Melissa is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York with a BFA in Interior Design.  She worked and trained with some notable firms such as Fox & Fowle, FRCH, and Jeffrey Kerbeykian Architects.

Prior to her professional interior design career, Melissa spent over ten years as a fine artist and model maker for film, TV, and architecture firms. She was awarded an art grant in 1990, which brought her to Berlin, Germany.  During this time she produced artwork and exhibited in the international art scene.  This experience influenced her to shift to site-specific projects and socially conscious object-making which replaced work based on her own handicraft.  Designing pieces for fabrication and drawing proposals to scale led to her eventual migration to designing objects and spaces.  

Melissa has worked with a variety of residential and commercial clients. Her architecturally based interior design draws from both her interior design degree and experience in residential, healthcare, and commercial interiors. Melissa believes the design process is both subjective and analytical and yet the real inspiration and direction of her work comes from her collaboration with her clients.  There are always constraints within a project, but she believes they present a unique opportunity for creation.  Besides attending to design and production, she constantly updates and maintains a robust collection of resources – from contractors and subcontractors to professional trade dealerships and custom tradespeople.

Melissa lives upstate in the Hudson Valley with her family and two scruffy dogs.