The design for this apartment atop a landmark Emery Roth building from the 1930s replaces a conventional front-to-back configuration of distinct rooms served by corridors into a free-flowing succession of spaces for the triple program of family home, chef’s kitchen and photo studio. The new layout is arranged around fixed structural column and plumbing stack locations.

To resolve the inherent conflict of the existing configuration - spectacular views at the front of the apartment, a large roof deck at the back - the new layout organizes the public areas along a diagonal that connects two distinct corner windows at opposite ends of the apartment. One faces Central Park, the other overlooks the Upper West Side. Private bedroom suites are arranged along the diagonal as cubic volumes that do not follow the existing layout of columns and ceiling beams. These volumes unfold a dynamic juxtaposition of lines and surfaces that is emphasized with various colors and material textures. Sliding wall elements create movable partitions to suit the different uses in various combinations.

The grid of the historic Art Deco steel windows serves as an inspiration for a new steel trellis on the terrace. This free-standing structure creates a dematerialized inversion of the apartment’s masonry wall. In this inversion, the masonry walls have become voids, while the "corner windows" have become the structural elements rather than the apertures.

Type: Built
Place: New York
Year: 2019
Collaboration: Daniel Schütz, Georg Windeck
Team: Lucas Chao, Sean Gaffney, Flavia Lucci, 2LS Consulting Engineers (mechanical), Laufs Engineering Design (structural), Christina Z. Antonio (leather paneling)
Photos: Naho Kubota

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