Project 03

Park AvenueResidence

Location: Upper East Side
Type: Residential
Year: 2023
Size: 5,100 sq ft

Wood-paneled library with bookshelves, a cream sofa, and a stone coffee table, opening onto a dining room with a glass chandelier

A prewar apartment with good bones and a floor plan built for another century. We kept the formal rooms, opened the back of the house, and gave the library the best light.

The owners entertain often and read at night. The plan turns on a new gallery that links the dining room, library, and kitchen, so the apartment finally works in the way it always looked like it should.

Linen lounge chair beside oak shelving and a tall steel-framed window

Lacquer

The dining room walls are paneled and finished in pale hand-rubbed lacquer, so they hold the reflection of the windows. A round travertine table, bouclé chairs, and a brass chandelier keep it soft.

Curved plaster staircase with a carved oak handrail, light falling across the wall

Two floors,one curve.

The stair

The apartment is a duplex, joined by a curved plaster stair with a carved oak handrail. Its walls curve with it, so you are never staring at a blank corner.

Material samples of travertine, honed limestone, oak, boucle, and aged brass on a plaster table

Sitting room with a marble fireplace, cream sofa, oak coffee table, and tall windows with historic molding

The sitting room

Travertine, limestone, oak, bouclé, and brass carry through every room. In the sitting room they meet the original marble fireplace and the restored molding.

Living room opening through wide glass doors to a covered porch and dune grass, with oak beams and linen sofas

The reading corner

A low linen chair, a stone side table, and oak shelving by a tall steel-framed window. It is the owners' favourite place to read in the afternoon.

Elevation, library wall

Evening light

Most lighting sits low: picture lights, sconces, and table lamps on dimmers. After dark, the ceilings disappear and the rooms feel closer.