Victoria Blau is a modernist at coronary heart, having minimize her enamel at Gwathmey Siegel Architects and SOM earlier than establishing her personal follow in 2002. However when she and her household had been searching for a brand new dwelling in Manhattan, they landed on an condominium in a pre-war constructing on Museum Mile, throughout the road from the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork (and with a view into the Egyptian wing’s home windows). It was dated, however generously sized and near Central Park, the place her husband likes to go working, in addition to close to her kids’s college. So she did what architects do greatest and launched into a renovation. The ensuing area, about 8,000 sq ft in all, brings a up to date edge to a classical constructing in a fashion that respects the unique structure.
The lounge, that includes a ‘Serpentine’ couch by Vladimir Kagan and a ‘Suora’ flooring lamp by Carlo Mollino, flows by means of to the eating room, furnished with an acacia wooden desk and chairs made by Dune with Armani Casa cloth, ignored by Untitled, 2001, by Mark Bradford
(Picture credit score: Douglas Friedman)
Tour the New York dwelling of architect Victoria Blau
When searching for inspiration, Blau naturally discovered herself first turning to the constructing itself. Designed in 1926 by John B Peterkin, the 15-storey construction contains a limestone façade and an ornate Italianate foyer, with expressively veined gray marble partitions, a chequerboard marble flooring, and finely detailed mouldings. Whereas she desired an area that expressed her architectural identification, she didn’t desire a full stylistic break from the remainder of the constructing, particularly since her unit is on a decrease flooring and has a robust relationship to the streetscape.
As she was designing the condominium, she recalled how jarring it was to go to Antoni Gaudí’s residential initiatives in Barcelona and expertise the artistry of his façades and shared areas, such because the stairwells, then to go into renovated residences that didn’t connect with the entire. ‘I felt having continuity was necessary,’ Blau says. With too stark a distinction, ‘the story will get misplaced’.
Within the entrance corridor is a ‘Cyclone No. 284’ chandelier by Hervé Van Der Straeten and a espresso desk by Paul McCobb, alongside a piece from Christopher Payne’s Steinway & Sons manufacturing unit sequence and a sculpture by Larry Bell
(Picture credit score: Douglas Friedman)
In essence, Blau nestled a minimalist trendy field into a standard shell. This meant retaining the landmark home windows and, wherever attainable, the unique ceiling mouldings (which wanted to be repaired or reconstructed). She then established a datum line under the mouldings and designed all the pieces beneath it to be trendy – a method that enabled her to additionally tuck mechanical infrastructure into the partitions with out obscuring the ceiling.
Then, on the primary day of renovations, her neighbour knowledgeable her that she was placing her unit available on the market. Blau had already accomplished the arduous design and allowing course of, however noticed a singular probability to mix the residences and create a residence with a classy promenade architecturale. ‘We already had sufficient sq. footage, but it surely was a possibility for a grander plan,’ she says.
‘As an architect, it’s a present to work with individuals who care a lot in regards to the closing product. It’s what retains me eager to do the subsequent challenge’
The ensuing nook unit is a play on the general public and the personal, the formal and the casual. The lounge, eating room and library face Fifth Avenue and Blau designed the sequence of areas in order that it’s attainable to stroll instantly from one finish of the condominium to the opposite. On the aspect going through 83rd Avenue, which is a a lot quieter one-way street, she sited the household’s working and residing quarters, with every room turning into barely extra personal than the one previous it: Blau’s dwelling workplace, the household room, kids’s and visitor bedrooms, then the first bed room suite on the finish, which incorporates an expansive dressing room.
Within the library is a ‘Mannequin 1441’ ceiling gentle by Max Ingrand, a lucite and velvet barrel-back chair, and a Belgian nickelplated brass espresso desk
(Picture credit score: Douglas Friedman)
To maintain the inside from feeling stark, Blau emphasised materiality all through. This included tinted lime-plaster partitions which have the feel of suede, black lacquered millwork that was wire brushed till it achieved the end of a Steinway piano, custom-made vintage brass mesh draperies, and herringbone wooden floors. And, sometimes, extremely expressive supplies punctuate the area, together with a macassar ebony vainness in a single lavatory and grey-veined Italian marble that fully envelops one other lavatory.
A Serpentine Couch Circle by Vladimir Kagan (Holland & Sherry Opus Pearl, in cashmere silk velvet) is paired with two {custom} armchairs by Aman & Meeks utilizing Belfair Upholstery and a Knoll Platner espresso desk. Close by, a Carlos Mollino Suora flooring lamp is subsequent to an artpiece by George Apartment, ‘Machine Gun’ (1988)
(Picture credit score: Douglas Friedman)
‘Regardless that a whole lot of the detailing was trendy, it has a really heat really feel,’ she says. Most of the options reference initiatives that Blau designed for purchasers. She loved collaborating with the expert craftspeople and subcontractors a lot that she introduced them in to work on her dwelling. ‘As an architect, it’s a present to work with individuals who care a lot in regards to the closing product or their small piece of the job,’ she says. ‘It’s what retains me occurring eager to do the subsequent challenge and the subsequent one and the subsequent.’
Within the eating space, a {custom} 3” thick Acacia wooden desk is surrounded by {custom} eating chairs fabricated by Dune, with Armani/Casa Cloth and that includes a {custom} steel chandelier by Empire Metallic Ending above. Subsequent to them is a Paul Evans, Sculpted Bronze Console, Mannequin PE-40, holding a Jamali Backyard, matte black spherical ceramic vase and a sculpture – Bertoia’s Untitled (Sonamibient) Pcs.1. The partitions are adorned by {custom} vintage brass mesh curtain material by Aman & Meeks, and two artworks – Rita Akerman’s Mama, Chaplin’s Clearing and Mark Bradford, Untitled, 2001.
(Picture credit score: Douglas Friedman)
The eye to element extends to the furnishings, which have restrained silhouettes however outstanding materiality and craftsmanship. In the lounge, Blau specified Vladimir Kagan sofas upholstered in boiled wool Chamonix and cashmere silk, a brass espresso desk by Willy Daro, and glass chandeliers by Erik Höglund displayed like sculptures. For the eating room, the place the household has hosted 30-person dinners, Blau commissioned an acacia wooden desk on bronze Eric Schmitt bases and surrounded it with chairs custom-made by Dune and upholstered in Armani Casa cloth.
In the lounge, a big scale piece hangs behind the couch – Cecily Brown’s Examine for Sarn Mere 4
(Picture credit score: Douglas Friedman)
A sculpted bronze console by Paul Evans, and a Harry Bertoia Sonambient sound sculpture deepen the area’s textural composition. Within the public areas, Blau used a impartial palette of hues dotted with deeply saturated accents that complement the artworks, a high-quality instance being the Mies van der Rohe ‘Brno’ chairs within the breakfast room, that are coated in a delicate blue ultrasuede that picks up on the palette of an summary Ryan Wallace portray.
Within the household room, the is a Steinwa Essex piano; {custom} drapes, Aman & Meeks, Kravet cloth; Patricia Urquiola’s Fjord Stones foot Stool for Moroso; Ron Arad’s do-lo-rez island for Moroso; Golran Rugs for Moroso; Saruyama Island armchair by Moroso; and a Subject soifa by Moroso. The paintings is Larry Bell’s CS 11.2.14A
(Picture credit score: Douglas Friedman)
The household’s artwork assortment reads like a who’s who of twentieth and Twenty first-century practitioners, together with the likes of Cecily Brown, Rita Ackermann and George Apartment. And whereas a lot of the condominium’s wallspace is devoted to those works, Blau additionally put in glass vitrines for her husband to show his hockey memorabilia, a testomony to how she designed the area for the particular character of her household. ‘It was a labour of affection,’ she says.
Two items by artist John Houck, Untitled #205 and Untitled #204, hold within the visitor bed room. In the meantime, {custom} drapes by Aman & Meeks utilizing Holly Hunt Cloth body the home windows subsequent to a {custom} upholstered mattress by Simon’s Upholstery, LLC and a aspect tably by Barneys NY.
(Picture credit score: Douglas Friedman)
Supply: Wallpaper
