mclane / ettinger apartment

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mclane / ettinger apartment

Type

Residential › Private House

YEAR

1998

SIZE

3000 sqft - 5000 sqft

High above Gramercy Park,
this two and one half story apartment faces southern views of the city. Originally two separate apartments, the new
home for a film producer, a theater set designer and their two children was
to be an integration and weaving of the narrow, stacked floors.

Existing, traditional, wood moldings are
juxtaposed with spare lines of well-crafted modern insertions.  Simple, warm, tactile materials shape
objects, make spaces, and frame openings to create an environment that is at
once hip and comfortable and durable.

From the double height living room, a
blackened steel stair with ebonized wood treads slips past a custom tinted
plaster wall down to the bedroom level.
The open stair rests in a stained wood cradle.

  Above the living room, the glowing poplar
and fiberglass ‘tree house’ provides a library and guestroom with a view out
the artist’s garret window and down into the living room. It also is the sole fixed source of light in
the living room, providing a lamp-like glow.

   The kitchen is visible across a structural
glass landing and through the large pass-through.   Pendant lights dance up and down above the
work and eating area. Analine dyed maple
cabinets with oversized stainless steel drawer pulls cover the walls on each
side of a lab top clad island; a playful random pattern of oversized linoleum
squares.    To accommodate myriad family
activities in the kitchen, an upholstered built-in seating banquette and black
lab top book case are located under a skylight at the west end of the
kitchen.

  In 1999, the clients purchased the apartment
below. The renovation of that apartment
included a playroom, bathroom, office, and bedrooms for three children as well
as the extension of the blackened steel stair into the playroom, where the
bottom landing acts as a stage for performances.

  Organized vertically, the layers of family
living are linked by a stair that brings theatricality and movement to the
mundane components of daily life.
Integrating elements of the traditional early 20th century
structure with a modern, more open design strategy the design address the
desire for intimate spaces, while responding to the varying needs of the family
and the open panorama of the surrounding views.