Photo by Alan G. Brake.

This is sure to send a wave through the design community: Moss, the influential design store and gallery located in New York's SoHo, has been seized by the State of New York for nonpayment of taxes—perhaps foreshadowed in Murray Moss's essay Design Hates a Depression, as pointed out by the Architect's Newspaper early this morning, who discovered the shop closed with a tax compliance notice on the door. They've done their due diligence and canvassed a few sources, including Moss hiimself, who, on the prospect that the store will go bankrupt, has to say: "100% NOT TRUE! Will send letter to you shortly...but we're not going anywhere...!"

Read the full article at the Architect's Newspaper, where they've promised to post the letter from Moss as soon as they receive it.

Update from Racked NY: A letter sent midday by Murray Moss and Franklin Getchell assure fans and customers that the closure is due to a paperwork misfiling, not imminent financial closure, though they are taking steps, as we all are, to run their business better.

As explained to us yesterday, mid-day, during an unexpected visit by officials from the NY State Tax Department, due to our failure to file a document (one of literally hundreds!) with the Department, an official, non-negotiable 'procedure' was triggered, whereby Moss was required to temporarily close...

Because we've all been in dialogue, we know that many of you, like Moss, during the severe economic downturn of the past two years, in addition to possibly downsizing where logical, until growth is again possible, have entered into negotiations with various business partners, as well as the State, to arrive at mutually acceptable financial arrangements which make sense and allow for a stable, doable plan going forward. We have put financing in place, adjusted our overhead, and re-evaluated our projections, and are ready to go forward. This is to re-iterate to our friends: we are, in short, ok.