On a certain level, this apartment is the consummate summary—a totally sculptural and architecturally articulate series of interconnected spaces with a major view orientation, in this case north to Central Park, which integrates the art with the architecture so that the simultaneity and the dialogue reinforce one another.

The extended material palette, referencing a Cubist collage—wood, stone, integral plaster, stainless steel, and titanium—is integrated into a spatial hierarchy that is both subtle and refined. This apartment takes the enriched palette and the sculpted space and, despite all the asymmetries, results in an incredibly enriched and serene environment. The extended sectional modulation reinforces the sense of variation and disengages one from the perception of being in a low, horizontal environment.

The architecture is the coequal frame for the art, the furniture, and the view. Every form, every manipulation, and every carving is responsive to either the display of the art, the occupation of the objects, or the reference of the view.

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The primary frame is rendered in integral plaster, while the private spaces are defined in wood, separated from the ceiling by glass clerestory transoms that reinforce the overall spatial continuity, while allowing for contrapuntal, hierarchical intervention and programmatic specificity.

The material palette of stone and dark stained oak floors, stainless steel, titanium, anegre wood paneling and cabinet work, reinforce the spatial hierarchy and complexity, as well as establishing a sense of density and permanence.

The design fulfills the formal, object/frame strategy through a complex and composite layering that is both visually and psychologically resolved.

One enters a gallery, which opens to the living/dining space and views beyond. Off the gallery is in the guest room, library, maid’s room, kitchen and bar/hi-fi room, all of which are distributed linearly front-to-back. Off the living/dining space, articulated by the curved extension of the gallery wall is the master bedroom suite, which includes a dressing room, extensive bathroom and terrace. This space separated by a mirrored sliding door is meant to be a literal as well as an illusory extension of the main space.

The edited palette- the black slate floor, white walls and ceilings and back and white lacquer cabinetwork—intensifies the abstract reading of the space.

The grid used here is not a repetitive one in the typical Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman manner, but its spacing is varied to meet a great range of new and existing conditions, and this network of organizing lines is displayed quite clearly as joints in the marble flooring. Typical of the apartment’s complex geometry is the detail of the main rooms’ window walls: a cove for indirect lighting curves downward above a projecting shelf, its front surface cut back at a 45 degree angle and its soffit mirrored.

The balance between stable and dynamic spaces is expressed by asymmetrical plan and sectional manipulations that counterpoint yet reengage the orthogonal exterior window walls. The space appears to have been carved rather than assembled, juxtaposing a sense of density with openness and light.Architect-designed objects collected over time, allude to the historical design preferences and serve as reference points in the object/space dynamic of the parti. The material palette reinforces the programmatic and volumetric manipulation, adding to the sense of collage while supporting the hierarchical articulation of details.

This apartment is both a summary of discoveries made in earlier projects and a speculation on new ideas. It represents a watershed moment in this sequence of investigations.

The programmatic mandate to evoke an English club, made wood-paneling obligatory. The paneling, a modern reinterpretation, strongly influenced by the Secessionist period, establishes the primary materiality and graphic for the apartment. Space and object are simultaneous and interchangeable, mutually reinforcing and dense.

A perceptual and literal layering of space is created by the carving from a solid to a void and defined by the articulated, inlaid, and modulated steamed beech and cherry wood paneling. The spaces are at once similar yet varied, dense yet open, articulate yet calm.

The skylit/laylight gallery is the referential, defining space, connecting and accessing, visually and literally, all the spaces in the apartment. It represents the transformation of “hall,” hierarchical and modulated over its length by the varying intersections and transitions.

This apartment was a unique design opportunity which resulted in a resolution that would otherwise never have come to without the client’s mandate. It was provocative and inventive.

The program specified a library and private office suite, living space, formal dining space, kitchen/dining/family room, exercise space and spa, master bedroom suite, three guest bedroom suites, a sculpture terrace and gallery. The entry floor is organized around a modulating circulation/gallery space separating the double-height living volumes, with their views, from the service spaces and building cores. The entry gallery, accessed from the north elevator lobby adjacent to the two-bedroom guest pavilion, opens to the sculpture terrace and extends the circulation procession to the family spaces which are revealed sequentially.

The second level, accessed by two stairs, one from the living and the other from the family room, accommodates the master bedroom suite, with its balcony terrace overlooking the city and river, and a guest bedroom suite, with a balcony sitting area over the library. The counterpoint between wall and glass, solid and void, establishes a dynamic and hierarchal layering of space which is simultaneously enriched and reinforced by the integration of the art collection into the architecture.

Three exposed, round columns support the expressed, pre-existing beamed ceiling which acts as a “parasol” over the new plan and section.

The limestone floor, cabinets and bathroom walls are rotated from the orthogonal plan, reinforcing the object/frame strategy. The cabinets that enclose the study and the dressing rooms are capped with glass clerestory windows and float below the ceiling, ensuring privacy while maintaining spatial continuity.

The undulating fireplace wall is “carved-away,” revealing depth, and a sense of density. The fireplace is treated as both a traditional object—a central figure in the apartment—and a modern one, a sculptural juxtaposition with a manipulated wall surface.

The materials are limestone; maple and carpeted floors; integrally colored veneer plaster and back-painted glass walls; perforated stainless steel and; pearwood cabinets with granite, limestone and onyx tops.

This spatial intervention is accomplished by the insertion of usable poché—built-in cabinets and furniture—and reinforced by layers of wood frames and curtains on the window walls, which create multiple planes of transparency, translucency, and opacity along the perimeter.

The spatial sequence is a continuous unfolding of interconnected public spaces from the entry gallery-bar/study, kitchen, and living/dining. The private domain, consisting of two bedroom suites, is located off the entry gallery to the east and distinguished by the introduction of local symmetry.

The materials in this apartment-oak and marble floors, ash paneling and cabinetwork, oak doors and trim, and plaster ceiling—are deployed in a system of layers, in both plan and section. This apartment explores the enriched palette, initiated in Geffen, as a further articulation of spatial coding.