Mr. Seiji Suzuki and the W&L Tearoom

Seiji Suzuki, a tearoom designer and builder in New Jersey, is a third-generation carpenter from Tokyo. He has built tearooms in museums and educational institutions throughout the country, including Harvard University, the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Florida, the University of Illinois, and the Urasenke branch office in a suburb of Washington D.C. He constructed the W&L tearoom in July 2006. By the fall of 2006 the tearoom welcomed tea course students, who had in previous terms met in a regular classroom.

Mr. Suzuki’s home interior designs have also garnered praise and an award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for the tearoom he built in a private home in Palm Beach, Florida. Mr. Suzuki is more than a builder of tearooms; he also practices chanoyu and has studied tea at the Urasenke Branch in New York City for many years.