What happens when you meet an icon, someone whose work you have admired for a lifetime? At the risk of dating myself, I will confess to following Peter Marino’s projects from the pages of the nation’s shelter magazines throughout the 1980s and ’90s and being flabbergasted by his use of materials, textures, and art. I vowed that he would design a home of mine one day.

That hasn’t happened yet, but surely the next best thing was honoring Marino himself at last month’s Innovation in Design Awards, where he received NYC&G’s coveted Innovator award. In a departure from our usual format, filled with tributes of various sorts, Marino asked to speak for himself. When he took the stage and talked about his work, a frisson of excitement rippled through the audience, the cream of the design world, who had gathered for the ceremony at the Rainbow Room near the top of Rockefeller Center. He was funny, engaging, even humble, as one jaw-dropping project after another played across the screen. The room was enchanted, and so was I.