The Sullens Residence located in New York City is a two story duplex of space in a prewar industrial building previously used as a photography studio.
The style of the apartment is a synergy of a number of stylistic and spatial impulses. The owner’s passion for the Arts and Crafts architecture as well as the prairie style established by Frank Lloyd Wright provided much inspiration. He also wanted the apartment to be an unabashedly “urban” dwell- ing with a loft like flow of space. To achieve this, we distilled the material and detail strategies into a design that is at once contemporary and evocative of these precedents.
The design was inspired by the particularities of the space as well as the owners passions. The apartment is situated on two floors so vertical double height shafts of space are created to establish an entry as well as a central atrium stitching these two disparate spaces together. The “cuts” in the fabric are then “bridged” with lightweight steel and glass catwalks and stairs.
A double height wood clad “steamer trunk” houses a screening room on the ground floor and the master bathroom above. A solarium is created within the footprint of the apartment (an exterior space embedded in an interior) at the south side of the apartment and was a response to the absence of any contiguous outdoor space to the apartment and our clients love of nature and gardening. AV/IT technology is seamlessly integrated allowing for out clients formidable collection of music, film, as well as environmental controls to be accessed from any point in the residence. The master suite was designed as an apartment within an apartment with a master bathroom appointed with spa grade fixtures and fittings.
Photography: Michael Moran