This Manhattan apartment is an interpretation of the work of legendary French designer Francois Catroux. We enlarged the foyer and paneled it with rich red-lacquered walls. The living room and library/den work together as park-view entertaining spaces when double pairs of French doors are opened. We added the antique fireplace to the living room to anchor the space. The former black powder room was paneled to mesh with the formal rooms and lightened in tone. The kitchen was redone with new cabinetry and opens to the family dining area. The master bath was completely gutted and replaced with a soft cream marble with subtle gold veins and a new vanity, and the floors throughout were refinished in a distressed surface to give the impression of age.
This landmark 1925 Manhattan building by J. Edwin R. Carpenter was originally an apartment house before it was remodeled as a hotel. Our client, a real estate developer for whom we had designed a house in Los Angeles, purchased the hotel for conversion to a condominium. We created a new Park Avenue entry and lobby for the apartments while maintaining the original lobby space on East 65th Street for a restaurant. Working with the Landmarks Preservation Commission, we were able to design a new Park Avenue apartment entry and lobby that connects to the restored elevator lobby. Our new spaces, which were required to be distinct from the Italian pre-Renaissance elevator lobby design, were executed in the Georgian style—classical moldings, limestone walls, black and beige stone floors, raised-panel mahogany doors—found in many Upper East Side apartments that our client admired.