How Décor Can Improve on the Architectural Past - WSJ
1/16/17, 2:14 PM
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REAL ESTATE | DESIGN
How Décor Can Improve on the
Architectural Past
A designer and owner respectfully update a Gothically detailed Manhattan apartment
without getting ensnared in its historical cobwebs
PHOTO: STEPHEN KENT JOHNSON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By TIM GAVAN
Updated Jan. 6, 2017 7:29 p.m. ET
WHEN THE 14- story residential Studio Building on Manhattan’s
Upper West Side was finished in 1909, a writer compared its crocketed
gables, carved arches and piercing spires to a “Brobdingnagian
cathedral” the likes of Notre Dame. Unfortunately, the neo-Gothic,
terra-cotta facade designed by architects Herbert Spencer Harde and
Richard Thomas Short proved both too soft and too tall to be
structurally sound, and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
had most of the intricate masonry on the exterior removed in the early
1940s.
So when Terry Kassel and New York architect and designer Corvin
Matei recently began redecorating Ms. Kassel’s 12th-floor apartment,
they were determined not to further dismantle its heritage.
“It’s a privilege to work in a historical building,” Mr. Matei said, “but
you’re also faced with a dilemma: How do you respect the architecture
but still make the home feel modern and not stuffy in the way that
older places sometimes do?” That question was especially important
to Ms. Kassel, an attorney who had recently divorced. “I wanted to
make the place completely mine,” she said, “to make it feel young and
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fresh.”
To preserve the past and yet make a purposeful departure from it, Mr.
Matei and Ms. Kassel kept the separate rooms of a more traditional
layout, resisting the urge to knock down walls, but opened the spaces
up with a light color palette. They spruced up original elements—like
mullioned windows in the apartment’s foyer and a stately arch leading
into the living room—while introducing the straight, simple lines of
contemporary fixtures and furnishings. To rejuvenate aged
architecture, they added copious flowers and other organic touches
and adopted an eclectic style of décor that reflects different periods
and styles.
Musical Chairs
In a historic
Manhattan
apartment,
gothic
columns
framing the
windows
were
repainted
their
original
white—
rendering
them both
traditional
and modern
—and
simple sheer
drapes were
hung to
leave the
PHOTO: STEPHEN KENT JOHNSON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
northern
light
unimpeded.
A sleek set of modular shelves with an attached desk from B&B Italia
counters the architecture’s rigid classicality, and a Carrara marble
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tabletop is surrounded by an intentionally haphazard collection of
chairs. “This room can be used for dining, cocktails, concerts with the
piano,” said architect and designer Corvin Matei of the flexible space.
“A randomness in the design keeps it informal.” A soaring,
hydroponically self-sustaining living wall, from Plant Wall Design,
adds a fresh, organic element and can be changed to fit the season or
homeowner Terry Kassel’s mood. A Lindsey Adelman light echoes the
flora’s naturalistic shapes.
Dreamy Creams
“Old
buildings
can be a
little
suffocating,
because
there are
windows
rather than
walls of
glass and
because the
rooms are
very
divided.
Lighter
colors tend
to make
these spaces
seem bigger
and happier
and more
PHOTO: STEPHEN KENT JOHNSON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
modern,”
Mr. Matei
said.
Cream-colored walls visually enlarge the master bedroom, as does an
unadorned beveled mirror that mimics the slant of the original crown
molding but keeps the room from feeling ornate or antiquated. The
light and polished metallic finishes on a B&B Italia chaise longue
chair, an adjustable Fritz Hansen side table and a swan-like light
fixture from David Weeks give the century-old space a contemporary
sheen, while pale leather door pulls on the closets and Bamboo silk
carpeting from Sacco look earthy and airy.
Friendly Formality
It would have been easy to remove walls to create a loft, but such an
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apartment
would not
belong in
this
building,
Mr. Matei
said.
Instead, he
and Ms.
Kassel
added
modern
PHOTO: STEPHEN KENT JOHNSON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
components
with a Zen-
like quality to quietly update the old bones, which he considers sacred:
Relaxed George Nakashima grass-seated chairs soften the restored
coffered oak paneling, and an ovoid-shaded light fixture from Rich
Brilliant Willing mellows the stately parquet floors.
Forceful Entry
“With this
concrete
block
[bench], we
wanted to
establish
right from
the get-go
that the
person who
lives here is
not
PHOTO: JOSHUA MCHUGH
conventional,” said Mr. Matei of the entry foyer.
The statement-making contemporary seat from Holly Hunt and an
equally minimalist concave mirror update the apartment’s foyer by
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providing a stark contrast to the diamond-paned windows, with their
elaborate terra-cotta frames, that look into the dining room.
Boho Tweak
Eclecticism
makes an
aged space
look
younger
without
asking it to
sacrifice any
of its
treasures.
The Gothic
arch over
PHOTO: STEPHEN KENT JOHNSON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
the French
doors and
the crown molding might have appeared austere had the living room
been decorated with pieces of the same vintage, but they seem like
part of a Bohemian scheme thanks to a less expected mix of
furnishings: A curvy, brown damask Christian Liaigre sofa abuts an
angular, stone-gray couch from Vitra; a lab-like wall sconce by Flos
cranes above an antique floor lamp with an asymmetrical, citruscolored shade; and a midcentury Gio Ponti leather armchair faces a
vaguely futuristic parchment-toned stone table, also from Christian
Liaigre.
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