URBAN GRAPHIC I’M VERY FORTUNATE TO HAVE SPENT MUCH OF THE FIRST DECADE OF MY PROFESSIONAL LIFE AT THE LEGENDARY INTERIOR DESIGN FIRM PARISHHADLEY ASSOCIATES, BEGINNING AS AN ASSISTANT TO ALBERT HADLEY (1920–2012) – NOT ONLY THE LOVELIEST OF GENTLEMEN AND AN INCOMPARABLE TEACHER BUT, IF I MAY SAY SO, ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL DECORATIVE ARTS FIGURES OF THE LAST CENTURY. SO IT WAS A SPECIAL PRIVILEGE, AND A NOT INCONSIDERABLE CHALLENGE, WHEN I WAS ASKED TO DESIGN THIS 6,000-SQUARE-FOOT FLOOR-THROUGH APARTMENT ON MANHATTAN’S UPPER EAST SIDE, AS THE PREVIOUS OWNERS HAD ENGAGED ALBERT TO CREATE THEIR INTERIORS.
18
19
above: A 1950s Louis XVI-style desk by Jansen, atop a custom top-stitched calfskin rug, in the living room.
opposite: All of the architectural details—the faux-painted pilasters and capitals, panelized ceiling, cornice, and frieze—
are new. A Milton Avery hangs on the mirrored wall opposite the fireplace. Rock crystal lamps flank the sofa.
22
23
The turquoise, ivory, and ash-brown palette is equally beautiful by day and night. The double doors flanking the black marble fireplace open onto the adjoining loggia.
44
45
opposite:
The upstairs book room features a table combining a base attributed to Maison Ramsay with a glass top manufactured by Corning, for which the means of production no longer exist. The urns atop the pilasters contain up-lights, which impart a gentle glow to the handkerchief-vault ceiling. above: The second floor’s rear stair hall is watched over, literally, by a Jean-Baptiste Huynh photograph.
54
55
above:
On the house’s top floor, exposed reclaimed wood beams convey the sense of an attic garret; the change enabled us to tone down the richness a bit and create a satisfying contrast, almost a country-house feeling. The seventeenth-century-style parquet d’Aremberg floors—similar to parquet de Versailles, but less formal—contribute to the mood. opposite: The guest bedroom, at the end of the long hall, nicely balances the rich and the rustic, with its sculpted limestone fireplace and eighteenth-century chandelier (originally destined for the master bedroom, until an even more spectacular one supplanted it).
98
99
that forms the suite’s introduction, a guest bedroom became a his-and-hers dressing area as sizable and wellappointed as a boutique; in the other direction, we added a breakfast bar off the bedroom, and paneled the tooplain wall on which the bed would sit, giving it texture and organization. Decoratively, the bedroom is a mélange of simple objects from varying periods—light-colored, reflective, transparent, textural—enjoying discreet relationships with one another. There’s an eighteenth-century Swedish secretaire that references the shape of a mid-twentieth-century mirrored commode; the shagreen Samuel Marx–inspired night tables find an echo in the rice paper covering the fireplace wall, tinted a turquoise that appears in the Murano chandelier. With its high ceiling that follows the slope of the roof, the room feels incomparably soothing and peaceful. Relax on the chaise beneath the garden-facing windows, and the mind produces the sound of slow-moving breakers. If there’s one room with which I’m particularly pleased, it is, ironically, the one with no view at all——indeed, with no windows. It’s the basement-level media/game room, aka the Rat Pack Room. I’ve often said that to focus exclusively on the impact that a space’s decorative components will deliver can be misleading, because the artworks invariably change so much, and this room demonstrates the point. It contains a number of effective elements: a grass cloth wall covering and hemp carpets introduce texture; warmth derives from camel and harbor-fog blue tones; the furnishings range from simple to standout pieces like a pair of vintage Deco club chairs and a cabinet finished in book-matched crotch-grain walnut. But what ties it all together, and gives the lair its swank, sexy charge, is the collection of black-and-white photographs of show business icons—Jayne Mansfield with Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Tyrone Power, the Beatles, various James Bonds, and of course Sinatra and his posse— that we pulled together from multiple sources and hung salon-style all over the walls. Like all the rooms in the house, this one offers its own specific pleasures. And even though you’re belowground, a lightness of spirit nicely refers you back to the light-filled experience up above.
The great French furniture designer Gilbert Poillerat, who specialized in ironwork, strongly influenced my designs for the table and chairs in the kitchen, where the couple spends much of their time. The articulated ceiling and cabinetry details give the big multiuse space an organizing, and soothing, rhythm.
112
1 13