This project is the gut renovation of a two-bedroom apartment in the Carnegie Hill Section of Manhattan’s Upper East Side. We reconfigured the kitchen and created a great room, installed central air conditioning, and upgraded fixtures and finishes.

One objective of this renovation was to bring light into an extremely dark apartment. We deployed a variety of strategies, including new LED lighting throughout. We developed a custom window detail, wherein window jambs were rounded and clad with semi-transparent glass tile. The scale of the window opening was increased in size and its surface animated, resulting in a condition of near luminosity. This theme continues into the kitchen, where countertops of Silestone (color White Diamond) give off a subtle sparkle with flecks of glass and mirror.

Renovation is fraught with uncertainty. And sometimes, unexpected opportunities emerge that both inform and enhance a project. Think lemons to lemonade. In the case of this renovation, a wing-wall meant to be removed was discovered to house a stack of independent gas risers feeding the apartment units above. Instead of keeping the piping bundle docked to the adjacent wall, it was released, essentially becoming a single freestanding column; its bullet shape suggesting spatial flow as well as a distinct directionality. The glorified pipe chase, now similarly clad in glass tile, becomes the organizing principle of the great room -- in a sense, the axis mundi of the space.