This 4,000 sf apartment located on West 23rd Street embodies the notion of open, contemporary urban living. Overlooking the High Line elevated path in the heart of Chelsea, it has been converted from a former industrial loft in a 1920s commercial building.
The design concept preserves the loft’s intrinsic spatial continuity and generous proportions. The essential openness is overlayed with a domestic program focused around the client’s specific needs and activities. Avid art collectors and entertainers, the couple sought an environment that would perform equally as an intimate retreat and a sublime party space.
Spanning the entire floor of the building, the apartment offers expansive North and South window exposures. The broad living area occupies the open center space, with bedrooms, bathrooms, dining and storage spaces arranged in a circulating perimeter arc. The rhythmic grid of original steel ceiling beams is revealed through a light sculptural cladding of illuminated white plaster. No ductwork interrupts this undulating surface; climate systems were carefully designed to disappear beneath the raised walnut plinth that defines the private bedroom and bathroom area.
The graphic, sensual, and highly articulated material palette includes Brazilian Walnut flooring in the bedroom area, with honed concrete floors in the living area, and honed Botticino marble in the master bathing suite. A satin-finished stainless steel wall wraps the entry, giving way to seamless white plaster walls spatially stenciled with reveals at the ceiling and floor. Lounge furnishings by B&B Italia and Maxalto add contemporary warmth. Hovering above a 14-ft dining table crafted from a single plank of aged Bubinga, the customized Swarovski Blossom chandelier reverberates within the loft’s planar geometry.