An Emergency Update

For the design and construction of this 25th floor apartment in a luxury high-rise on 68th street and Broadway, we strove to rescue the apartment from its circa-1980s standardized lack of character and capitalize on its impressive views of Central Park and Lincoln Center. The clients, who primarily reside on the west coast, requested a minimalist environment where the architecture served as the art.

We began by gutting the apartment leaving only the infrastructural constraints of the existing building systems. The concentration of these ducts, columns and plumbing risers at the rear of the apartment is now clearly defined as a service zone distinct from open plan of the living spaces.

All surfaces within the apartment are detailed with a minimalist aesthetic. To accentuate the pristine nature of the space all of the walls, ceilings and floors are skim coated with plaster and detailed with reveals to create the sense of independent floating planes. Light coves at the perimeter of the apartment provide concealed spaces above the ceiling for the automatic shading system as well as the central AC which delivers air through reveals in the ceiling instead of unsightly grilles.

A high gloss brown lacquer finish was selected for the panels that conceal the building infrastructure and extends the entire length of apartment. The lacquer wall creates a shear plane that simultaneously reflects the city views and recedes into shadow. Flush mounted doors with concealed hinges connect the more cellular utility spaces behind the wall to the expansiveness of the front of the apartment. In order to achieve a tolerance of 1/32” the entire wall system had to be dry-fit on site prior to finishing. The panels were then hung on concealed clips so all mounting hardware is concealed.

In an effort to reconfigure the small 5 foot by 7 foot bathroom we articulated the two bathrooms as one space with continuous materials. The master bathroom includes a separate wet room which houses a 600 pound cast concrete soaking tub and an open shower area. The floors and walls of both bathrooms are clad in 2 foot square limestone tiles. Separation is created between the master and guest bathrooms with a single sheet of white glass that spans from the rim of the bathtub to the ceiling. The enlarged tub deck passes between the two rooms and is used as a ledge for toiletries in the guest shower.

The same limestone was used in the kitchen for the backsplash and floors, in an attempt to unify the utility spaces. Two inch thick cast-in-place concrete counters create seamless surfaces that wrap around the room. A breakfast counter floats in front of the kitchen windows which afford some of the best views in the apartment.